From CEO to Concubine-Chapter 180: What Goes Around
TW: Mentions of non-con of a female side character and presumed incest.
From heaven to hell. This was all Wu Yusi could think about as she stared at her surroundings in horrified disbelief. The damp musty stone walls that encroached upon her from all sides had no windows in them, nothing to give her any indication of how long she’d been in here. The dull throbbing in her head made it hard to concentrate and the fear that mounted in her was quickly overtaking the outrage she’d felt for being treated like this.
That time, when the Yan slave had been brought in here to the Department of Careful Punishment, had he felt as scared as she was? But he was infinitely luckier than she; she couldn’t count on the emperor to rescue her.
The spine-crawling skittering noises made by the filthy insects that crawled across the cold floor made her retreat back into a corner. She was already at her wit’s end, on the cusp of breaking out into hysterics. She had been in this state ever since she’d opened her eyes from what had been a beautiful night’s sleep to find herself freezing in a cold pavilion clad in nothing but a loose dudou,1 surrounded by an entire host of palace eunuchs, their eyes gleaming with cold shrewdness.
And when they’d parted to let the emperor’s head eunuch step forward to appraise her, she knew that it was over for her.
On the spot, she hadn’t been able to explain anything. More so than they, she was desperate to understand the situation. But no matter how much she’d threatened, argued, and then begged, no one felt inclined to respond to her entreaties. Instead, she had been questioned ruthlessly by that hateful old eunuch, his interrogation veiled by a thin layer of politeness that soon faded away when it became apparent that she didn’t have a clue why she was there.
The ambiguous marks on her body, the pain between her legs, the blood that had seeped into the pavilion’s wood, her brother’s glassy eyes as he stared up at the roof, a gaping hole in his chest where his heart should have been.
Their plans had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Wu Yusi couldn’t even begin to comprehend just how. With the assistance of her family, they had engineered it such that it should have been Counsellor Tang Yuqin instead of her brother to show up in the bamboo pavilion and embrace the disgraced imperial noble consort. Imperial Concubine Hui had assured Wu Yusi that it would be secluded enough of an area that no one would stumble upon them before their schemes came to fruition.
True enough, no one had. Everything had gone according to plan. The dratted fox that they had gone to great lengths to plant by the Yan slave’s side had even been brought out successfully, the painted dragon coming to life after the pupils of its eyes had been drawn in1. Wu Yusi had gone to bed triumphant, accepting the congratulations of her closest maidservant with undisguised glee. She had been so confident that when she next woke up, it would be to the exhilarating news that Imperial Noble Consort Yue’s real identity as a malicious fox spirit had been revealed through his dalliance with the emperor’s most promising new official, and the one that had the favour of the commonfolk at that.
Blood had also been spilled. Whether His Majesty liked it or not, he would have no choice but to execute his beloved consort or risk incurring the wrath of the masses.
It had been the perfect set-up. Except, instead of that worthless slave boy who had dared to steal her position by the emperor’s side and the upstart commoner who was presumptuous enough to believe a mere nobody could overshadow a principal graduate from a noble clan, Wu Yusi found herself the victim instead.
Her skin was still coated in her brother’s dried blood, crusty flakes peeling off from where she’d rubbed herself raw from trying to scrape it all off.
She felt like she was going crazy.
The sound of someone clearing their throat caught her attention. The guard that stood outside the bars wasn’t a familiar face but he was the first person she’d seen after the Eastern Depot had taken her captive. Trembling, she scrambled over towards him on her hands and feet, her dignity long discarded.
"This big brother," she stammered. "Please, when are they going to let me out? I was framed, please, let me speak to His Majesty, I don’t know who did this to me but I am innocent—"
The light emanating from the walled sconces was too dim for her to see his expressions clearly, otherwise, she would have noticed how his lips curled up at the corners.
"Fret not, Little Mistress Wu, you’re already doing a good job right now."
Wu Yusi looked up at him in tired confusion. "I—"
"This servant’s master is more than aware that Little Mistress Wu has been falsely accused of committing this most heinous of crimes," he continued smoothly before tsk-tsking with faux pity. "With a lovely face such as yours, it would be a shame for it to go to waste if you were to die, wouldn’t it?"
Death. Wu Yusi had never felt its reach more keenly.
"I don’t want to die, please, I’ll do anything—"
A piece of parchment slipped between the bars to flit down to her feet. She grasped at it like it was a lifeline, her gaze travelling from the neat but childish handwriting on it before shifting back up to meet his eyes uncomprehendingly.
"You’ve maintained your innocence and of course, we believe you," the guard continued. "His Majesty is on the way over as we speak. Now that you know it was Imperial Noble Consort Yue who couldn’t help but crave the memory of your poor brother between his legs, you know what to do, don’t you?"
Wu Yusi didn’t need her mother here to realise that she was being made use of. Why they had chosen to take down the Wu Family along with the Yan slave was unfathomable to her but she was aware that she had to play her cards right if she wanted to get out of this alive.
She looked down at the parchment again. She didn’t recognise the handwriting but had enough reason to believe that it would implicate Yan Yun; there was no need to lie to her just to ruin her further, she was already destined for the execution block.
"I’ll do it," she agreed at last. "But tell your master to save me." With her chastity gone and her situation a direct threat to the emperor’s reputation, she wasn’t so sure that pointing fingers at someone else would be enough to get her off the hook.
In addition to horror, an overwhelming resentment seized at her. This was all the Yan slave’s fault. If she hadn’t had to work this hard to get rid of him, she wouldn’t be in this predicament. Even if the emperor didn’t let her go, she was going to drag him down with her.
The guard grinned at Wu Yusi in satisfaction. She looked away, unnerved by the lack of compassion in his stare. "Of course, of course. As long as Little Mistress does her part, we too will do ours."
Wu Yusi didn’t say anything in response to that. She clutched her knees to her chest and curled up into a tight ball, no longer having the presence of mind to care about the vermin that surrounded her. The next time she looked up was when she heard footsteps approaching, quiet footfalls that didn’t sound like the heavier leather shoes worn by the patrolling guards.
At any other time, she would have been delighted to have the emperor’s undivided attention on her. But now, as he watched her expressionlessly through the bars, she finally realised how terrifying it was to be at the mercy of a man who could take her life with one simple command.
"Your Majesty—" she croaked but the emperor held out a hand to stop her. Before she could even think to disobey, she fell silent, the imposing aura he was exuding just by looking down at her with his hands clasped before his back enough pressure to force her into mindless compliance. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
The emperor’s posture was relaxed, his tone conversational, but she was certain that he was livid.
"You have the duration of burning an incense stick to tell this sovereign something useful," he said. "If this sovereign likes what I hear, I might even consider leaving your corpse in one piece."
Despair robbed Wu Yusi of what little warmth she had left in her blood. "But Your Majesty, this concubine is truly innocent," she tried, but without much heart. The determination that she’d felt just mere moments before his arrival had all been leeched out of her by his uncaring attitude.
"If you think your little discussions with your family have gone unnoticed, this sovereign suggests you stop wasting your time. After all, you don’t have much of that left. Not that it matters to me, it’s your choice." The smile on his face made her heart freeze up. She’d heard the rumours but she hadn’t actually believed this captivating, powerful young man to be capable of such cruelty.
It was only now that she regretted her actions. Her husband was only capable of loving one person and it wasn’t her. The affection he showed to the Yan slave had made her eat her liver in jealousy, had beguiled her into believing that she had a chance to bask in that glory too, and now she was paying the price for her mistake.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she made a feeble grab at the letter she’d been given earlier on. Handing it over took all of her remaining strength and when the emperor deigned to relieve her of it, she let her arm fall limply by her side.
"A guard passed this to me earlier and asked me to insist that Imperial Noble Consort Yue dallied with my brother before framing me for his death." Her monotonous words echoed in the cell. Now that she was sure the emperor had no intentions of sparing her life, she no longer felt the need to keep a tight rein on her feelings anymore and all the hatred started to pour out past her lips. "You don’t believe me, do you? Of course not. You’ve only had eyes for him—and what a replacement he must have been." She laughed madly, not caring that her barbed insinuations weren’t even sufficient to do more than ignite a flicker of impatience in his handsome features.
"Haven’t you once considered why he’s so good at satisfying you? Has Your Majesty ever thought about where he learnt all his skills in bed from? My dear brother was there to pave the way for you! A cheap whore and you’ve chosen to pamper him like he’s the world’s greatest treasure." She was so loud now that the entire department could probably hear her. Very well. She was going to die anyway, if she couldn’t rest in peace, she wasn’t going to let anyone else either. With any luck, she could besmirch the Yan slave’s name further with a new slew of rumours.
The emperor remained unfazed. "This sovereign has to wonder why you think yourself a greater authority on what he’s like in bed than I am. But I am not here to quibble with you about such matters. You only have a sliver of time left and you’ve only given me one useful thing to work with." He waved the piece of parchment. "If there’s anything you’d like to add before we end this meaningless conversation, this sovereign suggests you think very carefully before answering."
What else could she tell him? That Imperial Concubine Hui was just as involved in this ploy as she was? That she didn’t even know how many others her family was in cahoots with? That the deaths in the capital were all because they wanted to prove to the rest of the country that the emperor’s favourite was an evil creature set upon ruining the kingdom?
No, she wasn’t going to give him the pleasure of saving his beloved whore all that easily.
Wu Yusi sucked in a ragged breath. "All I ever did was love you," she said. "Is that so much of a crime?"
"Don’t deceive yourself, Wu Guniang," was Liu Yao’s callous reply. "You loved the benefits I could have brought you, nothing more and nothing less."
With that, he turned and walked out, unheeding her tears and staying for exactly the length that an incense burns and not one moment more.
A traditional article of clothing that covers the torso, worn as an undershirt. Looks like a sleeveless backless halter top blouse. It was first worn in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) but the tradition continued on after. An idiom that means to add the vital finishing touch.
