"So we just need to send word back to Su of what is afflicting their King," Xiao Zai said.
He, Xiao Ziyi, Xiao Yuan and Chu Yun were alone in one of his offices, discussing what Chu Yun had inferred from Ru Yumei's words.
"That would be ideal, except we don't know which one of them we can trust," Chu Yun said, pacing back and forth in front of large cherrywood desk Xiao Zai was sitting at.
He frowned suddenly, stopping his restless wandering after coming to a troubling realisation. "Or even if we can trust one of them, at all."
He was glad to know for sure what had become of the King of Su -- that was one goal of this whole endeavour that had gone exactly according to plan.
But at the same time he was now left at a standstill.
Could the Queen Consort be trusted? Could the Third Princess?
And what about Ru Long's missing twin sister. Did either of them know about her existence at all? How aware were they of Ru Long's actions?
Of his goals?
"You look troubled," Xiao Zai said, from behind the desk.
"Well, the murky waters of Su are harder to navigate than anticipated, that's all," he said, meeting Xiao Zai's eyes with a wan smile.
Xiao Ziyi, leaning against a wall, with her arms crossed in front of her chest let out a gruff grunt. "I still don't know how you could have gotten all that from such a short conversation."
Chu Yun glared at her, but said nothing.
Xiao Yuan, sensing tension, intervened in the diplomatic tone he had adopted after being made adviser, "What if we send someone back with them to investigate the situation?"
"How would we even word something like that?" Chu Yun asked, resting his hip against the desk's edge. "'We can see you brought a contingent of guards with you but they look incompetent, how about taking a few of our people back to Su with you?'"
"And what have the servants been saying?" Chu Yun asked, going straight to the core of Hua Nanyi's anxieties.
Her eyes narrowed. "Exactly what I expected them to. They don't say it in my presence, but I've walked into many a conversation, cut abruptly short by my arrival, about how the Third Princess is clearly beneath the general, due to her lowly human nature."
"It's not as if they were effusive about me marrying Xiao Zai," Chu Yun said, pointing out the obvious.
Hua Nanyi let out a disbelieving scoff and shook her head, looking down at her own fingers drumming and insistent pattern on the table. "It's not the same thing. You were a Prince's son, and a beast like him. I'm a servant and a human. Even if she took me as a concubine it would be a scandal."
"I've said that we can give you a titl-" Chu Yun said.
She snapped her head up to face him brusquely. "You don't get it, do you? I'll never be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with her...like equals. Like you and Xiao Zai do."
Chu Yun's objections died in his throat.
Hua Nanyi's words reminded him of a conversation he'd had with Tan Ruo, that time about Chu Hean. Tan Ruo had posited that what Chu Hean wanted from a relationship was the equality she herself enjoyed with Minister Song, and Chu Yun with Xiao Zai.
An equality derived from the very unorthodoxy of their marriages.
But here Hua Nanyi was, contemplating a relationship just as unorthodox, but now that same equality was nowhere to be found. There were more layers between them than just alpha and beta, man and woman, human and beast, ruler and subject, master and servant.
Chu Yun was so used to seeing her as a friend -- his oldest friend -- that he sometimes forgot of everything that separated them.
"Xiao Ziyi wouldn't care about something like that," Chu Yun said, looking down at his folded hands. He was telling the truth, but the words sounded glib even to his own ears.
"She is the Commander General of Zui's army, the perception the soldiers have of her is everything." She shot Chu Yun an accusing glare. "You know this."
Chu Yun did. "I'm sorry for putting you in this position."
Hua Nanyi sighed deeply. "No, it's for the best that I stop harbouring foolish illusions. You don't need to apologise for making me realise that sooner rather than later."