Chapter 58 - The Fox Is Backed Into A Corner

Chu Yun followed the guard into the palace, keeping a safe distance behind him.

"Go warn Xiao Zai," he mouthed towards Hua Nanyi.

Her eyebrows scrunched up in worry above her clear eyes, but Chu Yun tightened his lips into a grim line and nodded at her with a swift tilt of his head.

She bit back her recriminations and left silently. 

The palace guard didn't lead him to the throne room as Chu Yun had hoped, instead he directed him to a small room, away from the busiest wings of the palace.

The guard rapped his knuckles against the door, and a gruff voice said from inside: "Let him in."

When Chu Yun walked inside, the King was facing away from the door, his hands clasped behind his back as he looked out the window at one of the palace's courtyards.

"Miaoyan, come closer," he said, not turning away from the open window. Both sides of the paper-pane windows had been thrown open, letting all the cold air in.

Winter was fast approaching in Zui. Autumn had barely gilded the foliage, and already the frigid winds from the glaciers had come down into Haolin. The King seemed unbothered by the cold, not even flinching in the face of the chilling breeze.

The guard closed the door behind Chu Yun with a loud bang, startling him into action. 

He did as the King asked and stood by his side facing the open window, and the courtyard below.

"What do you see?"

Chu Yun could see the Pearl Courtyard. Min Sezhui was still sitting down at the stone table, partially obscured by the large shade of the scholar tree.

"This one sees the Pearl Courtyard, your Majesty," Chu Yun said, keeping his tone even.

The King hummed, his serious profile gave nothing away.

He was a handsome man but beyond that, there was a stately authority about him that commanded attention, and invited a second look -- mostly out of self-preservation. 

"I can see the Pearl Courtyard too whenever I'm working in this room, which is most days." His gaze was still turned outside, as if Chu Yun wasn't there. "I told Sezhui to amuse herself in the Pearl Courtyard exactly because it allows me to keep a close eye on her. Miaoyan must have noticed by now that she is a little...slow. It wouldn't do for her to get hurt."

Chu Yun kept things diplomatic. "Sister Min is very agreeable company."

One corner of the King's lips ticked up, on the side facing Chu Yun. "'Sister Min'...such closeness. Miaoyan would lower himself to calling a lowly omega concubine 'sister'?"

"It doesn't seem right to stand on ceremony with someone like Sister Min," Chu Yun said, and it was even true. 

He felt an enormous pity for the girl, from the moment he first met her, knowing that he was going to use her. Now, having seen the consequences of his actions on her innocent face, he felt all the worse.

Chu Yun would call her 'older sister' if that were enough to erase the debt between them.

The King finally turned to face him, his grim expression showing only contempt. "I allowed you to keep meeting with her because I wanted to see how far you would go."

Chu Yun said nothing, even as the overpowering scent of the King's pheromones permeated the whole room.

His scent was a mixture of rice wine with an astringent, acidic tang that Chu Yun couldn't quite place but which made his nose burn. He struggled to keep his face neutral, not wanting to reveal how much the smell was disconcerting him.

In any other circumstance, Chu Yun would return a wave of domineering alpha pheromones with one of his own, but the King of Zui would never tolerate that, and Chu Yun was in enough trouble as it stood.

"Imagine my surprise when apparently you just wanted some silly girl to keep you company. My son is a bore, so I didn't find that hard to believe." The King took a step in Chu Yun's direction, who took a step backwards, towards the wall behind him. "Until the day before yesterday, that is."

The King grinned at Chu Yun's silent discomfort and kept advancing towards him, until Chu Yun's back hit the wall and he had nowhere else to go.

"I can't lay hands on you, out of respect for the royal family of Xin." The King's smile was sinister, very much an indication of how much he wished that weren't the case. "So, Sezhui must suffer in your place."

Chu Yun swallowed drily. The King's pheromones were pressing down on him like a physical weight, the thick, cloying scent made him want to retch. He was sure the King could see the disgust written on his face.

"Miaoyan apologises for offending his Majesty," he said, keeping his words brief. They both knew he wasn't being honest.

The King snarled and seized Chu Yun by the front of his robes. "You really are a piece of work, I can see why your uncle wanted to get rid of you," he frowned, "I suppose he's congratulating himself on having unloaded you on my doorstep."

"Miaoyan has no intention of being--"

The King's grip on Chu Yun's robes grew tighter. "I don't care if you have my idiot son wrapped around your finger, but don't presume for a moment that I will let you do as you wish."

"I don't presume anything," Chu Yun said, meeting the King's eyes. In the same way the King couldn't hit him, so was Chu Yun unable of truly speaking his mind. All he could do was glare.

Something about it made the King break out into laughter. "You have some nerve to look offended. Spoiled, churlish, undisciplined, as all Xin alphas I've met." He sneered. "In Zui, even animals as stupid as omegas know their place."

Chu Yun's hands were clenched into fists at his side. He was about to say something really unwise.

"Maybe it's because there are no stupid animals in Xin that we don't know our place."