QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

Xi Zirui is beginning to wonder if both Su Xueyi and Han Yu have decided to camp out in his reception hall, since both seem reluctant to leave, when a servant comes rushing in and whispers something in the Emperor's ear.

"When did he arrive?" Su Xueyi asks, getting to his feet with a frown on his face.

"Answering His Majesty: General Liao arrived just now," the servant says, bowing to Su Xueyi.

Su Xueyi hums, clearly still displeased, and turns to Xi Zirui. "Xi-fei, this Emperor apologizes but he'll have to cut our visit short. There are matters that need attending at court."

Xi Zirui rises to his feet too, hoping relief isn't written too plainly on his face. "This concubine understands, His Majesty has a lot on his mind, and many troubles from sagely ruling over the nation."

He accompanies Su Xueyi outside, but he stills him with a hand around his shoulder. "Xi-fei is very understanding. This Emperor enjoyed our time together." He runs his fingers from Xi Zirui's ear down to his jawline, his eyes drawn to his humid lips. 

Xi Zirui is extremely grateful for the presence of the servants and Han Yu hoovering like a specter over his shoulder, or else Su Xueyi might have kissed him.

"This Prince will leave too, many thanks to Xi-fei for the performance and the company," Han Yu says, bowing deeply.

Su Xueyi doesn't acknowledge his son, and just climbs into the open sedan the servants have brought for him. 

Han Yu keeps a eye on his father's retreating retinue, all the while looking as if he's getting ready to leave himself.

However, as soon as Su Xueyi disappears from view, he takes Xi Zirui by the wrist and pulls him along with him around the pavilion and back into the cover of the weeping willow and its secluded canopy of branches.

Xi Zirui doesn't notice how hard his heart is thumping until Han Yu's thumb presses down on his pulse point. "Xi-fei, forgive this Prince, but he needs to know. Why did Xi-fei want to marry Imperial Father?"

Well, the easy and short answer is that Xi Zirui didn't.

But he can't really say that.

"Host, really shouldn't say that," Ni Ni pipes up, stating the obvious which is her favorite pastime.

He has to come up with something, because Han Yu is looking at him expectantly. 

"This one has long felt that his destiny lie in the Imperial Palace," he starts, still unsure of where he's going with this. "His Highness might call it an inkling from Fate, but this one felt his happiness would be found in the Imperial Palace, and so this humble one did everything in his power to be noticed by His Majesty, but...," he trails off and looks away from Han Yu, hoping he'll fill in the missing details with something suitable.

"Lazy Host..." Ni Ni says, also trailing off at the end.

But Han Yu laces his fingers with Han Yu's, and gazes down at him with heartfelt compassion, proving just how well Xi Zirui knows him, and that Ni Ni should trust him more.

Xi Zirui has managed to make the guy he likes feel sorry for him for marrying someone else.

He should get some kind of award.

"Is it possible that Xi-fei has misinterpreted what Fate was trying to tell him?" Han Yu asks, squeezing Xi Zirui's hand briefly before letting go.

Xi Zirui lets his lashes lower over his eyes and squeezes Han Yu's fingers in acknowledgement of what he's implying. "This one...this one, has very few talents, and is not bright, but he's beginning to think that, perhaps, his happiness might not lie with His Majesty, after all."

Han Yu pulls Xi Zirui against his chest and wraps his arms around his waist, making him gasp with the sudden movement. "No one can be happy with him, especially not one so gentle as Xi-fei."

It's pretty clear that Su Xueyi and Han Yu don't have the best relationship, but why? Especially since Han Yu is still the Crown Prince. If Su Xueyi really hated Han Yu he could make another of his sons Crown Prince.

"That's correct, Host, but remember that the First Prince hasn't been formally announced yet," Ni Ni says, spooking Xi Zirui with her eerie mind reading. She wasn't so obtrusive in the previous world, which makes Xi Zirui wonder if she was always able to read his mind and just faked it.

AI will truly take over the world.

"If Host wants, Ni Ni can tell him why the relationship between father and son isn't good," Ni Ni chimes in again.

Xi Zirui looks up into Han Yu's humid eyes, looking down at him with so much worry and concern, as if he's envisioning the terrible fate Xi Zirui might stumble into, or perhaps, already has.

No, he thinks he's going to hear the sad backstory from the source.

"This concubine hopes it isn't presumptuous to say, but he couldn't help noticing that the relationship between His Majesty and His Highness is somewhat strained," Xi Zirui say, looking out at the swinging tree branches, rustling softly with the wind. 

"Xi-fei can always speak his mind freely in my presence," Han Yu says, and sighs. 

He lets go of Xi Zirui and walks towards the trunk of the weeping willow, sitting with his back against the rough bark. Xi Zirui takes his place next to him, folding his legs under his knees, and giving Han Yu time to collect himself.

"As Xi-fei might have noticed, the current Empress isn't this Prince's mother."

Xi Zirui nods, he did notice that Bai Mi's relatively young age did make it unlikely that she'd be Han Yu's mother in this world.

"My mother was the previous Empress, Ling Feng," Han Yu takes a gulping breath when he says his mother's name, as if he hasn't said it out loud in a long time.

Ni Ni chimes. "He hasn't! There's a taboo on the previous Empress's name, no one can speak it aloud."

Xi Zirui grits his teeth and mentally tells Ni Ni to fuck off. Unfortunately, he thinks it only works when he says it out loud.

"Back then, the current Empress was a lower rank concubine, but Imperial Father favored her and promoted her to consort. Shortly after she got with child." 

Xi Zirui doesn't miss the way Han Yu's fingers tighten on the robes over his legs, and his eyebrows knit above his stormy eyes. Revising these memories is painful for him, and yet he's doing it for Xi Zirui.

Placing his fingers over the crook of his elbow, Xi Zirui tells him, "His Highness doesn't need to continue if doing so causes him pain."

Han Yu shakes his head, but doesn't meet Xi Zirui's eyes. "Xi-fei needs to know this. He needs to know what the Empress is capable of."

The screech of tires climbing up the curb and skidding at speed towards him is still vivid in Xi Zirui's memory. He's perfectly aware of what Bai Mi is capable of.

"My mother was a good woman, very fair and kind. She understood her duty to the country, and her place in Imperial father's life, she never got into disputes with members of the harem, or played into petty squabbles. She was more than Imperial father deserved."

His voice cracks with emotion, and he swallows wetly around nothing. 

Xi Zirui closes his fingers over his elbow. "I believe you."

Han Yu snaps his head towards him, his eyes widening at the intimacy of the words.

Xi Zirui doesn't know what Han Yu is going to tell him, but he wants him to know that even without the layers of hierarchy and deference between them, in this moment, Xi Zirui is just a person who is listening, and who believes what he's being told, not because His Highness the First Prince tells it, but because Han Yu does.

Han Yu covers Xi Zirui's hand with his own, and lets out a bitter laugh. "Would that the Emperor believed my mother that easily."

"Did the Emperor exile her after the current Empress's child was born?" Xi Zirui asks, knowing there is a precedent for that in his own world. All kinds of reasons are manufactured to depose Empresses and elevate a favored consort, or one from a more powerful and influential family.

"The current Empress's child was never born," Han Yu says, his tone dark.

What?

"If Host had let Ni Ni tell him, he wouldn't be left with his jaw hanging open so unattractively in front of the First Prince."

Xi Zirui snaps his mouth shut, and mentally curses out Ni Ni.

"When her pregnancy was some five months along, the Empress began experiencing terrible pains. The physicians were called but nothing could be done and she lost the child," Han Yu shakes his head. If his stricken expression is out of sorrow for his unborn half-sibling or for the events that would happen after, Xi Zirui can't tell. "Then it was found that she had been poisoned."

"Did the former Empress become a suspect?" Xi Zirui asks, still not seeing how the tale is going to come together.

"Bai Mi accused her, she said the last thing she did before losing the child was having tea with the Empress," Han Yu spits out the words, forgoing propriety and calling the current Empress by her name.

"Surely, something could have been done to attest to the former Empress' innocence?" Xi Zirui asks.

"It could have, if my father had wanted to." Han Yu gets up from the ground and clasps his hands behind his back, walking out of the coverage of the weeping willow and towards the edge of the lake.

Xi Zirui follows after him. "What happened to His Highness' mother?"

Han Yu looks out towards the lake, the sun refracting on its still surface like a broken mirror.

Xi Zirui admires the straight line of his back, and the gravity of his profile. This Han Yu is younger than the one Xi Zirui first met, but his eyes are much older, he carries himself like a person who has already lived more years than he can bear.

There's nothing Xi Zirui wants to do more than rush to his side and wrap his arms around that stiff back, and ease his tension with soft words and sweet nothings.

Outside the shade of the weeping willow, neither of them can afford be that bold.

"My mother was executed, on my father's orders" Han Yu says after a long pause. "I was ten years old."

Xi Zirui can't imagine what that must feel like. Knowing your father killed your mother. "My heart aches for His Highness."

Han Yu doesn't turn around to face him, but some of the tightness in his shoulders loosens. "To this day, I suspect she poisoned herself. She sacrificed her own child for power and status." 

Xi Zirui has no trouble believing that. It sounds perfectly in character for Bai Mi.

"The worst part is that after he crowned her Empress, the burning love he had for her vanished." He scoffs. "Once the novelty wore off, he was back to the beds of his other concubines, or marrying someone new who caught his eye. Not that the Empress cared, she already had what she wanted."

Han Yu finally turns around and fixes his piercing gaze on Xi Zirui. "I beg Xi-fei be careful. While a male concubine can never be made Emperor consort, as such a position doesn't exist, the Empress still exerts her power when Imperial father shows too much of a preference for someone, especially someone new."

Xi Zirui lowers his eyes. "This concubine isn't favored by His Majesty, this one's humble residence is far from the palace's main buildings and His Majesty is often busy. His Highness has nothing to worry about."

He wishes his survival in this world wasn't dependent in keeping Su Xueyi's favor, and that he believed his own words.

Han Yu raises his hand as if he wants to touch Xi Zirui, but then lowers it, when he realizes that a servant could walk in on them at any moment. "This Prince isn't so sure, Imperial father was very taken with the paintings Xi-fei sent."

Oh, no, does that mean Han Yu has seen them?

Xi Zirui wishes he hadn't left his fan inside the pavilion, he could really use it right now.

"Besides, the Empress fell pregnant again, for the first time after losing the child, around the time Imperial Father first met with Xi-fei and the two started their correspondence. It could be a coincidence, but in all the years I've known Imperial Mother," he scoffs at the words, his lips curling with revulsion, "I've come to learn there is no such thing."