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Gaoshun liked to think that, in his thirty-eight years upon this earth, he had managed to cultivate a certain sense of equanimity and stoicism. Between his milk siblings’ ability to get into trouble when they were all children together and his ward’s nose for that very same trouble (even if ‘Master Jinshi’ tended to focus on more adult shenanigans that, sadly, had everything to do with politics and nothing to do with the boy getting himself a consort), he could usually maintain a proper demeanor to serve as an example to those around him.
Unfortunately, at this moment, he knew his eyes were rounded and his mouth open in shock as he stared at his ward and master, who was looking unusually pathetic. The only person who could consistently get this reaction from the young master was Xiaomao and, sure enough, after that appalling scene in Lady Gyokuyou’s parlor, she was involved. Although this could not remotely be considered her fault.
No, this was entirely Master Jinshi’s doing.
He took a deep breath, forcing his words into a tone befitting his official status. “You’re telling me that you gave her the ox bezoars…first?”
Master Jinshi nodded, pink cheeked and miserable.
He took another deep breath. He should offer a calm reassurance and encouragement to simply create another opportunity to bring Xiaomao fully into the prince’s inner circle.
Instead, he heard his own incredulous tone. “Are you new here?!”
“I know…” his master moaned, burying his face into his forearms, draped across his desk.
Gaoshun carefully pressed two fingers against his forehead. “So, Xiaomao heard literally nothing you said after that. How much did you manage to tell her before you did your best impression of the village idiot?”
“Nothing,” his master said, still into his forearms, all honey stripped from his voice. Only profound embarrassment remained.
He blinked. So, Xiaomao had been told nothing about their master’s purpose in the Rear Palace, nor his true rank. That made no sense. Aside from her increasingly reserved attitude toward the young master, there had also been her unease when they returned from the woods, after flushing out the team with the flintlock pistols. She had been on edge, more than willing to rest in their suite while he and Basen attended the water party in their masters’ places.
Clearly she knew something.
“Are you sure you told her nothing? Xiaomao is quite good at piecing information together.”
Master Jinshi refused to raise his head from where he had buried it in his arms in an altogether childish display of petulance.
He took another deep breath. It was at times like this, he could shake the boy. “Well, you will simply have to tell her here, in the capital. Perhaps it might be best to pull her out of Lady Gyokuyou’s service for a few days on another project as an excuse. Given that you are her direct employer and this assignment is only temporary, it would hardly be strange.”
The palace master’s voice was muffled where he continued to talk into his sleeves, but he was clear enough. “Lady Gyokuyou already made that teatime a living hell last month before we left for the hunt, and you want me to go through that again?”
Given that he was unobserved by his companion, he allowed himself the luxury of arching his eyebrows. “Shall I list the ways, official and less well known, that you outrank Lady Gyokuyou? You seemed quite aware of them when we retrieved Xiaomao on the way to the Diamond Pavilion.”
Master Jinshi finally picked his head up, a faint flush continuing to stain his cheeks. “The Precious Consort is our best candidate for Empress, especially if she delivers a son this winter. Throwing my weight around would be unwise.”
He would not sigh. He would not roll his eyes. He most especially would not smack his master upside the back of the head. No matter how tempting the prospect was.
Jinshi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Honestly, perhaps it’s for the best.”
“That you didn’t end up telling her?” Gaoshun asked, attempting to clarify.
The boy dropped his hand and fixed his posture without being told. “Yes,” he said, as he attempted to settle back into the practiced mask of the impeccable palace manager.
“I thought you had already decided that the benefits outweigh the risks when it came to bringing Xiaomao into your confidence.” Gaoshun did his best to press his master on the issue. “Is there some reason to change your mind on that front?”
Jinshi was silent, picking up a piece of paperwork and idly scanning it.
Yet another deep breath. “Master Jinshi - ”
His ward slammed his chop atop an offending piece of paperwork with more force than was necessary. “She doesn’t want to know!”
Silence reigned in the palace manager’s office in the wake of that outburst.
Jinshi sighed and raised his head, looking Gaoshun in the eye. “The apothecary has a good nose for trouble and I think she’s made it clear enough that this is not a confidence that she wants to keep. And, need I remind you, we just got a rather unpleasant reminder that to be a servant of His Majesty’s younger brother is a rather hazardous occupation as well.”
“This would not be the first assassination attempt that Xiaomao has interfered with,” Gaoshun pointed out more gently.
“Well, she doesn’t appear to have changed her mind since the day the beam fell.” Jinshi picked up the next document, glancing over it. “She literally found me while wearing Imperial dragons and the ceremonial crown of office. She guided both me and His Majesty through the Shrine of Choosing. My lady mother even sought out her expertise regarding her worries about the state of His Former Majesty’s body upon burial. She’s not stupid, Gaoshun. She knows very well that I am not all I claim to be. She has had every opportunity to ask. I have even tried to tell her. She refuses to listen.”
Gaoshun’s eyes narrowed. There had been something in Master Jinshi’s tone as he asserted Xiaomao’s unwillingness to hear information she did not feel she needed to know (and he couldn’t deny that their apothecary could be extremely stubborn when she chose to be). “She knows something,” he asserted, watching his ward’s face carefully.
The boy had come a long way from when he was a child. A leading statement no longer caused him to wince or try to explain what mischief he had been up to. Instead, his master simply turned his attention back to his work, the only indication that he was uncomfortable was the tapping of his finger against the edge of the paperwork and a tension in his shoulders.
“So, if she does not know your true identity, nor your mission in the Rear Palace, that leads me to ask what on earth she could have discovered that would have her looking at you like a wild dog rather than a bug scraped off the bottom of her shoe,” Gaoshun pushed.
The set of Jinshi’s shoulders only got tighter as he refused to look up.
There’s only one other true ‘secret’ that she could have discovered - and if she has learned that without any other context…
A change in tactics was called for. Gaoshun asked, in a mild, conversational tone, “So, then, do you want to tell me what happened between when you were shot at and when you finally returned to the hunt? You were both rather bedraggled and damp.”
Jinshi pressed his lips together in frustration. “We were near the river when the gunshots went off. I decided the water was a better risk, so we jumped down the waterfall.”
Gaoshun just stared. “The waterfall that’s nearly fifty meters high?”
“Yes.”
He understood Jinshi’s reasoning perfectly - in fact, if it had been him in that situation, he might have made the same call. But even so, he winced while voicing his immediate thought.“I hope Xiaomo is a strong swimmer.”
The blood drained from his master’s face. “No. But I didn’t realize that she couldn’t swim until I hauled us both into the cave behind the waterfall and got her to cough the water out of her lungs.”
Well. That had no doubt added terror on top of the stress of the situation. “It’s good you were able to help her. But if she couldn’t swim out with you, that means you both were left stranded until young Lihaku showed up, if I remember that specific cave correctly.”
Jinshi rolled his shoulders and for just a moment, Gaoshun could see the child he had been. One day, the boy would realize that neither he nor Basen were nearly as good at keeping secrets as they thought they were. Probably the day they had children of their own who tried to pull the same trick they once had. Assuming, of course, that either of those two boys ever managed to marry and become a father.
He resisted the impulse to shake his head and wonder what he might have done in raising them to cause both his youngest boy and his foster son to be so reticent in matters of love. More to the point, there were some adventures children needed to have, away from the watchful eyes of adults. As protected as their prince had been as a child, Gaoshun had been able to give him at least that much freedom by turning a blind eye to the boys’ adventures - all the while praying for his hairline.
Besides, it wasn’t as if Gaoshun, Ah-Duo and His Majesty hadn’t all jumped off that waterfall themselves as children. Ah-Duo still held the record for the fastest dive and subsequent swim to shore.
More to the point, they would have been alone - truly alone, which was a luxury his prince was rarely afforded. Wearing soaked clothing in a damp, chilly environment.
Gaoshun shook his head at the bright red flush slowly creeping over Master Jinshi’s face. Truly, just as children needed to have adventures on their own to build their confidence, there were also some details that should remain private between a man and a woman. But he had heard enough to make an educated guess. “So, I take it that, while she may not have been told the most important piece of information, our apothecary is now aware that you are not, in fact, a eunuch?”
“...yes.”
He closed his eyes and did his best not to sigh aloud. No wonder Xiaomao was looking at their master with such a wary expression. Instead, Gaoshun smoothed his expression and drew his shoulders back. “Do you remember when you were about ten years old and learning how to jump obstacles on horseback?”
Jinshi paused in his not-so-careful review of the petitions in front of him. “Yes,” he answered, his flush fading as his interest was caught by the seeming conversational tangent.
Good. He had his attention. “Do you remember being thrown, just when you thought you’d figured the whole thing out after a mere three days of practice?”
Jinshi made a face. “I’m convinced the stable master deliberately kept that manure heap there for arrogant students to land in.”
“I wouldn’t take that bet,” Gaoshun replied, amused at the young man’s insight. “Remind me, though. What was lesson one of being thrown?”
“Get back on the horse,” Jinshi answered immediately, his brow furrowing.
“Mmm.” Gaoshun closed his mouth, allowing the old lesson to percolate in the quiet of Master Jinshi’s office.
The palace manager leaned back in his chair, thinking. “The apothecary isn’t a horse. If she doesn’t wish to know, do I really have the right to force her?”
At this point he couldn’t be shocked at what would be an utterly ridiculous question coming from any other master. Xiaomao was a servant, and even undercover, ‘Master Jinshi’ was a nobleman and her employer. Not only did he have the right to force the issue, it was hard to argue that it wasn’t also his responsibility to do so. Perhaps Master Jinshi needed a reminder that force was not always the wrong option. Gaoshun let the question hang in the air for a moment, pausing to allow himself to gather his thoughts. “Do you think ignorance would save her?”
Jinshi’s expression shuttered and he was silent. It was just as well he didn’t say anything - after all, it was a hypothetical question with an obvious answer. The latest round of assassins would have gladly snuffed Xiaomao’s brilliant light without a second thought, had it netted them a dead prince.
The palace manager drew himself up. “I will consider your words. In the meantime, please follow up on this report.” Jinshi handed Gaoshun a wooden slip. On it was the updated meeting time for the new eunuchs’ orientation - they were former slaves after all. They needed a firm, yet gentle hand to get oriented within the Inner Palace.
Gaoshun took the wooden slip with both hands and bowed. “Of course, Master Jinshi.”
He could have sworn he heard the young master mutter, “It wasn’t a frog…” but he resolutely pushed it from his mind. Master Jinshi was a grown man now - the only reason Gaoshun would ever have to enter his bedchamber was directly in service of his master. Anything else was an invasion of what little privacy the young man had.
Not to mention, he truly did not want to know.
As he left to handle one of the myriad tasks that kept the Rear Palace running with the smooth efficiency that was the hallmark of his master’s management, Gaoshun permitted himself a small smile as he wondered if the young man had yet thought of what had immediately occurred to him.
Another servant might have run to her mistress or the Matron of the Serving Women to expose ‘Master Jinshi’s’ secret. Indeed, one’s first instinct might be that exposing the palace master was the wisest, most loyal course of action. After all, the rules of intact men entering the harem were absolute. They could be lifted by the Emperor’s order, of course, but occasions such as the envoys’ arrival were quite rare. Indeed, as much as Gaoshun was a trusted servant of their sovereign, even his continued service to his master was predicated on continuing to take the medication all but forgotten by all except the elder generation of palace doctors (more for protocol’s sake than because the Emperor truly thought that Gaoshun would lay a hand on any of these girls - girls who in many cases were younger than his own daughter).
The consequence to a servant who had assisted such treason would be death. Xiaomao could be quite discreet, but strangely naive at times; whether or not she knew anything concrete, had his master truly been a simple favorite of His Majesty rather than his younger brother, anyone and everyone associated with his household would be put to death for such an offense. The royal bloodline was an asset that necessitated the most stringent safeguards.
Yet, Xiaomao’s mouth remained firmly shut. Even if she regarded the young master with an apprehension in her eyes that was far removed from her usual disgust for his court persona, she had said nothing, giving no one any reason to think that ‘Master Jinshi’ was not exactly who he appeared to be.
Her silent discretion said more to him about what Xiaomao thought and felt than the most passionate declaration of feeling ever could.
Their apothecary had always been quite reticent about her true opinion of Master Jinshi, falling back into the proscribed role of a servant whenever it was convenient for her, while also using the palace master’s favor to push the boundaries of that role whenever she felt that someone’s health and safety were at risk. Her willingness to use the palace master for her own ends aside, for months, Gaoshun had wondered if the young master’s attraction was one sided, his own heart aching at the idea that the young man might also be doomed to learn the hard way that love could only be held in an open palm.
It was a relief to now be certain that, no matter what his courtship might look like in the future (and given Xiaomao’s stubbornness, he was fairly certain that any progress would be won inch by slow inch), his master’s interest was not hopeless. In fact, it was a good thing that the young master was just as stubborn as his apothecary, even if that stubbornness was disguised behind charming smiles and flattering manners rather than downcast eyes and an affectation of disinterest.
In the meantime, he had a job to do and he had pushed the prince as far as he could for one day. But, just like it was time for his master to likewise push the issue with his apothecary, it would be Gaoshun’s duty to encourage the young man to set aside the role he had grown accustomed to playing. He didn’t think his ward realized just how much he had outgrown the mask of the palace master, but Gaoshun could begin to see cracks around the edges - his disdain while handling Lady Lishu’s excuses for attendants, brushing his fingertips against Xiaomao’s lips directly in front of Lady Gyokuyou, all but daring Xiaomao to say anything in front of the dumbfounded consort.
Life had a way of forcing truth to the surface. Better to control how the Moon Prince’s identity was revealed rather than wait for fate to intervene in a way that was much more dramatic than anyone needed. But that was a problem for another day. For now, he had work to focus on.
But as he turned his face upward into the late summer sunshine to enjoy the rays on his face for a moment, he allowed his smile to widen where no one would notice. “You two,” he murmured. “You’d think the two of you were the first to ever fall in love.” As the sun passed behind a cloud, he lowered his head and straightened his shoulders, allowing his own, practiced mask of the stoic attendant to settle over his features
Croak!
A fine specimen of a frog began jumping across the pathway, determined to find its way to a nearby, adjacent pond. Gaoshun stared at it pointedly for a moment, before shaking his head. “I really, truly, do not want to know.”
He strode on, his eyes straight ahead as the frog went on its merry way.