Of course Xie Lian wouldn't let the matter go just because Banyue didn't want to talk. No, he wasn't a former general for nothing, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to practice his spy work.
Banyue hadn't visited the king again until the scratch on her neck was completely healed, and the king never showed himself in the dancer's quarters, so she had been successful at keeping the incident a secret from the king. Still, it was obvious she missed him. It was why, when she realised that the last red traces on her neck were gone, she didn't waste another day to run back to the throne room.
Xie Lian had told her he wouldn't accompany her, which was true, but he was following her. He made sure she wouldn't notice him and was very successful at it, too. Of course he made sure to stay hidden in general, so that nobody on the lookout would notice him either, but still nothing happened until Banyue entered the throne room.
Xie Lian didn't dare to enter without prior notice, and with such a delay after Banyue, so he waited in the hallway in front of the throne room, under the suspicious eyes of the guards. Xie Lian smiled and waved awkwardly at them, and eventually decided to hide behind a curtain. After all, he couldn't be sure where Banyue would go after her visit here was over, and he didn't want to risk her seeing him. Still, given the glances the guards were shooting him every once in a while, he was sure the king would learn about his strange behavior as soon as Banyue left, and he could only hope he'd still be alive by tomorrow.
After what felt like a half eternity, Banyue came out of the throne room, in very high spirits and incredibly happy, so the king must not have noticed anything off about her. Xie Lian couldn't help but smile at the antics of this child. It really didn't take much to make her happy. All the more reason to find out which jerk had hurt her so badly, he thought with a darkening mien.
As soon as Banyue turned around the corner, Xie Lian started following her again. He also immediately noticed that now, one of the guards was following him in much the same way he was trailing Banyue, but he pretended to not notice.
The way back was equally as uneventful as the way to the throne room had been, and Xie Lian was almost about to sigh in relief, when he noticed movement from the left turn down the corridor, the opposite direction Banyue had taken. Xie Lian stopped, stepped back further in the corridor they'd come from, and angled himself against the wall, just behind the corner, but in a way that wouldn't draw any attention from anyone passing by from the left.
A short moment later, four kids ran past him. Going by height and stature alone, they must've been about five years older than Banyue. Early teens, Xie Lian guessed. One of them pounced on Banyue, who went down without so much as a hint of resistance, and raised his fist, obviously about to punch her.
Xie Lian grit his teeth, knowing he'd make the situation worse for her if he interjected directly.
So he walked a few quick steps back, and started calling "Where are you? Banyue! You're late!", before he leisurely walked around the corner, looking towards the left side of that corridor first, as if he didn't have a clue that Banye had turned down the right side.
"Banyue!", he called down the corridor, before he turned around. He saw the little girl trying to get up to her feet hurriedly, her bullies already about a li down the corridor, running as if their lives depended on it. If Xie Lian had any say in it, it kind of did. However he didn't know who those kids were, who their parents were, if they were perhaps related to the king, and that was why Banyue didn't want to tell anyone about these incidents. So he couldn't touch them for now.
"Banyue!", Xie Lian called again, worriedly this time, and immediately rushed up to her. "Are you okay?"
Banyue nodded, but he could tell just by looking at her that she was shaking. So he patted her head.
"Silly child. If someone is bullying you, you should-"
"No. I won't tell. I don't want them to win like that."
Xie Lian sighed.
"You didn't let me finish. If someone is bullying you, you shouldn't just let them. You should fight back. I can teach you how to take on all of them, if you like. Once they realise you're not so easy to bully anymore, they'll leave you alone."
"But what if they come at me with knives again?", she asked pitifully.
"I can teach you how to defend against that, too", Xie Lian assured her.
"Really?", Banyue asked in a small voice.
"Of course. I used to be in the army, you know? I can teach you a lot", he tried to reassure her.
Banyue kept her head lowered for a few moments after he spoke, but when she finally lifted her head, her eyes were determined.
"Then, please teach me, Xie-gege."
From then on their new routine changed.
After lunch, Banyue would stay in the dancer's quarters with Xie Lian, instead of visiting the king, and he would teach her the basics of self defence, mixed with some slightly advanced martial arts technique to disarm her opponents. Most of what Banyue lacked in strength could be made up for by speed, but he tried to have her build a bit more muscle mass anyway, since that definitely wouldn't be to her disadvantage.
Xie Lian taught her for two weeks without fail, and could already tell that Banyue was getting much better at their spars. It was why he eventually decided to send Banyue off to visit the king again. Of course he sneaked behind her without her knowledge again, just in case Banyue wasn't ready to use her practiced moves in a real life situation yet.
The guards protecting the throne room all shot him amused glances when they saw him this time, and Xie Lian felt so embarrassed, he hid behind the curtain almost as soon as he'd arrived. He could only imagine what that one guard had told them last time.
When Banyue came back out, she was in very high spirits, and positively skipped down the hall. Xie Lian couldn't help but smile when he started trailing after her again, though he did feel bad about having kept her away from the king for so long.
He wasn't being followed again this time.
Just like last time, there were four kids who attacked Banyue on the way back, but this time she stood her ground, and did exactly what Xie Lian had taught her. She didn't even have to use any offensive techniques to get the bullies to scram; they had already turned tail after Banyue had successfully blocked them a few times.
Xie Lian smiled, and turned around the corner, and walked up to Banyue to pat her head.
"Well done", he praised his little student.
The grin Banyue gave him in return was the best thing he'd seen in quite a while.
After this incident, Banyue stopped taking daily lessons from him, and only had Xie Lian teach her every two days. After all, now that she wasn't really scared of getting ambushed anymore, she wanted to meet the king regularly again.
Xie Lian used the days that Banyue visited the king to practice dancing by himself. He had improved a little bit over the past few weeks, but he wasn't satisfied with his progress. Miss Fang always told him his movements lacked sensuality; that his expression was not seductive enough. Xie Lian had never even dreamed of showing expressions like that on his face or body however, and was entirely inexperienced regarding anything … carnal.
It was true that he'd started having heats when he'd turned 14, but because there was only a major and a minor heat once a year, he still wouldn't call himself experienced in that matter either. And even then, a minor heat was easily ignorable, just some discomfort in his lower abdomen that went away by itself after a week.
He'd only experienced four major heats so far, and none of them had been pleasant. He knew that other spouseless omegas tended to go and fetch themselves an alpha to spend that week with, but the thought of doing something like that with a stranger made Xie Lian's skin crawl. He'd always spent his heats alone, and endured the first three ones without even touching himself, feeling too repulsed by his body's desire to do anything about it. It was only during his last major heat that he got over it, and pleasured himself, but only once. It had left him feeling somewhat complicated afterwards, but it had indeed helped with enduring the rest of the heat.
Either way, there had never been a need for him to try and be seductive, so he didn't have a good grasp on the concept to begin with.
It was the reason why he decided to confide in Miss Fang after practice, and told her he had no idea how to go about it.
Miss Fang hummed in deep thought for a while, before she sighed.
"Come with me", she ordered, and walked out of the dancer's quarter's, Xie Lian following closely behind her.
Miss Fang walked across the corridor, and through the gate on the opposite side of their dancer's quarters. It was only then that Xie Lian remembered he had been rather curious about what lay behind those gates before he got busy with everything that had happened in the meantime.
As it turned out, their neighbors were none other than the concubines of the king's harem. Which, Xie Lian remembered, consisted of only alphas and betas exclusively. He couldn't help but feel a little concerned once he felt several pairs of eyes staring at him.
"Miss Fang", one of the harem members came forward to greet them. "We haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?"
"I would like to say I've been excellent, but unfortunately this new student of mine here is quite a headache. Which is why I'm here. I need you to teach this boy how to be seductive. His whole body is still too stiff and I don't have the time I'd need to make him lose that fierce look of his when he dances. The movements are all there, and they're all clean and without fault. So what he lacks isn't anything I can easily teach him, but it's exactly your forte, isn't it?"
"I see. That is indeed our forte. You can rest assured that we'll get him up to your standards in no time, Miss Fang", the man replied courteously.
"I'm counting on you", she said, and promptly left.
Xie Lian resisted the urge to gulp nervously.
"My name is Zhu An", the beta introduced himself.
"I'm Xie Lian", he replied politely.
"Ah, I've heard about you. It's nice to meet you. Now, let's get started. Show me how you dance, so I can evaluate how exactly to improve your showmanship."
Xie Lian was extremely reluctant to dance alone in a courtyard full of people, but he grit his teeth, and endured it.
When he was done, Zhu An looked at him with a somewhat grievous expression.
"I see", he said, and then sighed. "You looked so gentle when you just stood there, so I thought this would be easy, but I didn't expect you to turn into a bloodthirsty warrior as soon as you moved. Where to start…"
"How about starting with his expression?", another man chimed in, and Zhu An nodded contemplatively.
"... you are?", Xie Lian asked, not particularly liking that his lesson was becoming a group effort.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Tian Sheng! I already heard your name. Xie Lian, right?"
Xie Lian nodded. This one also seemed to be a beta.
"So! Imagine you're dancing for His Majesty. If you look at him with an expression like that, he'll probably end up calling for his guards, so try not to frown. Instead, concentrate on when and how you look His Majesty in the eyes during your performance. I'm not sure how dancers usually go about this, but in my opinion it would fit this dance perfectly, if you try to catch His Majesty's gaze in the beginning, and hold eye contact with him for the duration of one… what do you call it? One step sequence? No matter, for a few seconds, and then look away, pretend to be shy, but look back at him again. Repeat that for a few times and there's that one part in the dance with all those hip movements, right? I think if you moved your head back just a little, like this, enough that you can look down your nose and still keep eye contact with him, that would have a pretty nice effect, too. Also-"
"Tian Sheng", Zhu An interrupted the younger man. "Stop. Take a breath", Zhu An teased him, before he put his attention back on Xie Lian.
"He's right though. Perhaps the easiest way for you to get rid of that frown is to concentrate on the intention you want to deliver with your eyes. Try what A-Sheng suggested. I'll play the stand in for His Majesty."
So Xie Lian did.
It was very hard to relax his face, because he was so used to putting on a threatening air around him to intimidate his opponents when he felt put on the spot, that it came naturally to him, without him having to put in a conscious effort. To go against that now, and to try and do the opposite was really no easy task. He tried his best however, and Zhu An and Tian Sheng had a lot of good tips and tricks he could use to make the whole thing easier for him.
In fact, it only took them one week until they were happy with his facial expressions while dancing. The next obstacle was, according to his two new teachers, to make his movement fittingly seductive.
"You look like you swallowed a stone slab", Tian Sheng told him a little too honestly, one afternoon, a little more than a week after he'd first been introduced to them.
"Dancing like this probably has a lot to do with how you're getting into the dance itself, too, doesn't it? You know what usually helps is dressing up the part. If you want to present yourself as a seductive dancer, you shouldn't wear those robes. Didn't they give you any proper dancer's garments?"
Xie Lian gulped.
"I think they might have?", he laughed nervously.
Neither Zhu An nor Tian Sheng looked impressed by that response.
"Well then go and get changed."
Xie Lian couldn't think of a counter argument that made sense, other than that he didn't want to, but after a moment of hesitation he just sighed in defeat, and went to do as he was told.
Luckily, Banyue was paying another visit to the king today, so he still had the house to himself for a little bit.
Xie Lian took a long look at the three fits that lay in front of him. They all had different colour schemes, and Xie Lian wasn't sure which one he should go for. The girls always wore either, pink, light blue, or lavender; very different from the ones Xie Lian had to choose from. The selection he could choose from consisted of a dark blue fit, a red and black one, and a white, red and black one. He wondered if he was going to get other colours that would fit in with the costumes of his female counterparts, or if he was forever supposed to stick out like a sore thumb.
In the end, Xie Lian decided to wear the red and black one. He was delighted to realise that he got to wear actual pants, and not a long skirt like he had expected. Putting everything on was somewhat of a hassle however, because there were all sorts of clasps going around his ankles, and even a ring for one of his toes to keep a piece of fabric on top of his feet in place.
Another thing that surprised him was that, even though he'd thought the lower part of the costume consisted of 3 pants, it was really only just one, made to look like it had layers. Getting the bands tied to each other correctly was a science Xie Lian had yet to master, but in the end he'd figured it out, and could really only complain about one single layer being extremely indecent.
Though, another thing he was even less happy about, was the fact that the pants had holes in the outer sides, starting just below the waist band, down to his upper outer thigh. He was very concerned about those holes possibly exposing his bum when he did those shaking moves, but was relieved to find out they were sewn too tight for that to happen. He thanked the heavens for small mercies.
The top was a whole different story however. Just looking at it made Xie Lian feel like it'd be more decent to just go completely topless. The thing had long, puffy sleeves, which left his shoulders exposed, and cuffed around his wrists in the same fashion his ankles were. But that was fine. The thing Xie Lian thought wasn't fine, was the torso of the top, which was incredibly tight around his chest, left his stomach exposed and had a golden ring cut into the center of what was supposed to cover his chest. True, the circle wasn't particularly big, and his chest was still mostly covered, but it was also big enough to leave the inner line of his (not quite as much defined as he'd like) pecs visible through it.
How was he supposed to go out like this!?
Xie Lian sighed, glanced at the accessories that came together with these clothes, and firmly decided against putting them on. He needed to get used to this first. And this was already a lot.
Xie Lian made his way back into the harem as quickly as possible, hoping he could escape as many eyes as possible. Once there, he was greeted by Zhu An and Tian Sheng staring at him appreciatively. Xie Lian immediately blushed crimson, much to the amusement of the two concubines.
"Oh that's adorable, your blush is as red as the fabric", Tian Sheng snickered, though he managed to not sound mean about it.
"Shut up", Xie Lian muttered, the expression on his face dark. He was a fighter! He wasn't supposed to look adorable of all things.
Zhu An chuckled, before he turned serious again.
"So, do you feel any different wearing that?"
"Of course. I feel much less comfortable", Xie Lian said, and managed just barely to not sneer. He wasn't happy at all right now.
Zhu An sighed.
"Well, you'll have to get comfortable with it at some point, so just get used to it. Let's see you dance again."
So Xie Lian danced again. However, as much as he didn't like it, he had to admit that he was suddenly much more conscious of his movements.
When he was done, the two betas hummed in contemplation.
"It was already much better", Tian Sheng commented.
"It was. But it's glaringly obvious that you're a virgin, and that's a bit disadvantageous for this sort of dance. I'd offer to help you out with that, but it's strictly forbidden for us to have sex with anyone but His Majesty, so I can't. Maybe go and ask-"
"I will not", Xie Lian interrupted Zhu An hastily, but very firmly. He could feel that his head was bright red.
"Okay… then get yourself off. It's the easiest way to understand what those body rolls and hip thrust or whatever you dancers call it, are supposed to feel like. And you need to understand that in order to get those moves across properly, otherwise the intention just seems a bit… off. So once you get the feel of it, you can just recreate it when you dance. We're no dancers, we can't tell you about any secret techniques behind those movements or how to make them look more authentic without having the sexual experience as a backing to it. We can only teach you with what we know."
Xie Lian swallowed, and ordered himself to be more professional about this. When he had been training in the army, he had been single mindedly focused on training, and nothing else. He needed to do the same when it came to dancing, too. Otherwise this would never go anywhere, and he still wanted to be good at whatever he was doing.
So, Xie Lian tried to think back to that one time during his major heat when he'd pleasured himself, but found it a bit difficult. It had only been a bit over half a year ago, but memories tended to be hazy when it came to those heats.
Still, Xie Lian thought that maybe what they wanted to tell him was that, when he was dancing, his hip movements needed to be more exaggerated.
When he danced again, he tried to concentrate on moving bigger, not just his hip movements, but his arms and legs as well.
Once he was done, Zhu An looked like he was about to laugh, and Tian Sheng looked like he was about to cry.
"What?", Xie Lian asked self-consciously.
"It's just that… you were moving really well, much better already, there's just a certain softness missing in your movements but maybe that's just because you're a man… but… Xie Lian… your expression… you looked like you wanted to aggressively seduce us into submission or something", Tian Sheng tried to explain.
Xie Lian's shoulders slumped.
It was true that he hadn't paid any attention at all to his facial expressions. It seemed like he couldn't do both things well simultaneously.
Seeing Xie Lian drooping, Zhu An smothered his laughter, and tried to cheer him up.
"At least we now know that you do have it in you. You just need to practice doing both things at the same time. I'm sure it's just a matter of time until you get the hang of it.
Xie Lian sighed, disappointed in himself, but agreed. He'd just have to keep practicing.
He wanted to ask if there was any need to keep coming here if that was what the issue came down to, but they got interrupted by the gate opening, and General Nan Yang walking in.
The general seemed confused to see Xie Lian in the harem, but he didn't comment on it.
"Tian Sheng, His Majesty requests your presence in his chambers."
Tian Sheng's eyes lit up, and he bid Xie Lian a sloppy goodbye before he skipped over to General Nan Yang.
Xie Lian could only stare after them, feeling somewhat… befuddled.
