Chapter 172: Don't skulk around unnoticed

Xi Zirui needs to hold on to his own pieces carefully. This game has multiple players, and he doesn't know if they're only operating within the rules of this world, or if they have memories back that can muddy the whole thing.

It's not in his best interests to tell Bai Mi he's willing to help her achieve her goals, at least not yet.

He needs to know more about what she plans to do, and for that he enlists Han Yu's help.

"That kind of thing is beneath this King," he says, completely straight-faced while adjusting the collar and chains above his robes.

Xi Zirui gives him a pointed look.

Han Yu raises his cuffed wrists. "I've begun to see these as a sex thing, and therefore, not beneath me."

Whatever helps him sleep at night.

In theory, what Xi Zirui needs from him is very simple. He needs him to proposition her.

The only thing Xi Zirui wants to know is how Bai Mi will react to this, will she tell Xi Zirui about Han Yu's behaviour? Will she try to manipulate Han Yu to suit some goal? Will she keep it to herself?

Depending on her reaction, he'll be able to gauge where her intentions truly lie.

In the meantime, he'll be taking the opportunity to snoop around her room and try to find something useful.

The only problem is getting the two of them into her private rooms. It would be unseemly, especially with Han Yu present.

Which is why Xi Zirui improvises.

---

It's Ji Limei who opens the door for him when he knocks hurriedly on the door to Bai Mi's suit of rooms. She's wearing a pretty plum-colored robe, a little more flashy than what other servants usually wear, but she still lowers her eyes demurely as soon as she sees him.

"How can this lowly servant be of assistance to His Majesty?" she asks, not stepping away from the doorway.

"Is my sister inside?" Xi Zirui asks, trying to peer anxiously over her shoulder.

The question is only meant to sell his urgency, he knows full well Bai Mi is in her rooms.

"What's the matter?" Bai Mi's voice sounds from the inside, as she makes her way to the door.

"Please sister, let me in, it's urgent," Xi Zirui says, adopting a less formal register, one the original might have used with Bai Mi when the two of them were younger and he hadn't yet become Emperor. 

He shoulders his way past Ji Limei without waiting for an answer, dragging a silent Han Yu behind him by the lead.

Ji Limei spares the barbarian in the collar and chains a mildly scandalized look before lowering her eyes demurely once again.

Bai Mi is less open in her shock, or perhaps she isn't shocked at all, perhaps she has grown accustomed to Han Yu's presence next to Xi Zirui.

Xi Zirui closes the door behind them, and clutches his chest. "I think someone tried to attack me," he says moving towards the center of the large reception room.

"Who would dare?" Bai Mi asks, genuinely curious, perhaps because she's thinking she didn't orchestrate anything of the sort, and is worried someone is making executive decisions behind her back.

Xi Zirui feeds her some bullshit about something sharp zipping by him while he was out in his courtyard only to disappear into the bushes. 

"An arrow maybe, I didn't find anything, and run here," he says, when she questions him.

She wants him to report the matter to the guards, he reminds her he doesn't know who he can trust yet. 

"I'm going back there to find whatever almost got me, but I can't take him with me, it would draw too much attention" he says pointing at Han Yu who looks bored by all the current events. "Can older sister keep an eye on him for a while?" he asks, slipping back into his brother-Emperor register.

He wasn't making it an Imperial edict -- but he could.

Surprisingly, it's Ji Limei who speaks up. "A vicious murderer alone with her Highness...it wouldn't be proper."

Xi Zirui smiles at her and walks Han Yu towards a corner of the room, he slips the lead below the chain between his wrists and pulls it up above his head, doing his best not to react to Han Yu's smirk while he finishes restraining him to a pillar.

"There, this Emperor has secured the vicious murderer, the ladies should be safe now," he says, smiling pleasantly towards Ji Limei and Bai Mi before disappearing into the open double doors leading to Bai Mi's private courtyard, which is naturally connected to all other areas of the palace.

He crouches as soon as he's out of view and doubles back so he can sneak into the other rooms of her quarters, hopefully her bedroom.

Private courtyards aren't usually guarded, only the areas where they connect to other places, or the room doors leading to them.

If someone has made it to the private courtyard of any of the Imperial palace's residents it's because they were invited there.

That's how Xi Zirui can slip into Bai Mi's bedroom -- after two failed attempts where he walks into other rooms -- undetected. 

Like all other rooms in her quarters, Bai Mi's bedroom is finely appointed, although it's clear she is the youngest in a long line of sisters. All the paintings and wall hangings are generic beautiful knickknacks, instead of something commissioned especially for her, a reflection of her tastes or character.

At first, Xi Zirui doesn't see anything that can help him much in Bai Mi's rooms. Everything is spotlessly clean.

Her vanity has all her creams lotions, and powders but no damning correspondence -- Han Yu was smart enough to burn his, why wouldn't she? 

Still, Xi Zirui is determined to find something that he can use against her later, even if only to convince her to back down and let him help her instead of wanting to get him out of the way.

It's always good to have insurance.

Besides, he's hoping she's working with Su Xueyi and that with proof he might have an easier time getting rid of him, or pressing him for answers regarding his memories -- if they're back.

Unfortunately for Xi Zirui everything in Bai Mi's room is pristinely clean, not a speck out of order, as if she is just as soulless and ornamental as the paintings on her walls.

That's when he realizes he's been looking at the situation all wrong, Bai Mi is a princess, whether she is spoiled or not like Han Yu says, she still wouldn't be cleaning her own room. Her maid would.

Speaking of which, it is a little funny that Xi Zirui has only ever seen her either on her own or with Ji Limei. Even if she wasn't a favored daughter, it would be normal for her to have several maids at her service.

Unless she dismissed them.

More maids meant more people who could accidentally, or on purpose, trample on her plans.

Hadn't Xi Zirui done the same?

But this tells him Ji Limei is someone she trusts, maybe even has a closer relationship with, like in those other worlds.

So Xi Zirui leaves Bai Mi's quarters, and makes his way to Ji Limei's much smaller ones, which should be nearby.

There, he hits the jackpot.

---

He makes his way back through the same courtyard. Han Yu is still chained in the same position he left him, and Bai Mi is sitting quietly by a low table while Ji Limei serves her tea.

"I wasn't able to find it," he says, shaking his head in frustration.

"Maybe whoever tried to attack you retrieved the weapon," Bai Mi suggests, sounding all the while like she thinks this is what happened. "But what do I know?" she adds at the last minute, taking a sip of her drink, probably overly conscious of sounding too wise.

Or guilty.

"I'm really sorry to have bothered younger sister with this unsightly matter," Xi Zirui says, as he releases Han Yu from his bounds.

Han Yu's face doesn't betray anything, and Bai Mi makes no move to stop them as they leave the room.

"It's no bother, this sister is happy to help younger brother in any way she can," Bai Mi says, from her place at the table, raising her cup slowly up to her lips.

Ji Limei walks them towards the door and bows politely to Xi Zirui before seeing them out.

Xi Zirui waits until they have reached the safety of his rooms to talk with Han Yu.

"So, how did it go? Did you have the chance to proposition her?" Xi Zirui asks, looking Han Yu up and down, worried he might find something different in him.

He knows it was his idea, but it doesn't mean he can't be a little jealous anyway.

Han Yu chuckles and shakes his head. "No."

"What do you mean no?" 

"She propositioned me before I could say anything."