After taking a bath, Xie Lian walked back into his chambers, only to come to a surprised halt when he saw the sitting area.
There was nobody there, but on the table was a variety of moon cake, as well as a jar of wine very nicely laid out.
Xie Lian blinked, and looked around, but there was indeed nobody else here anymore. Still, whoever had brought it, Xie Lian sent them a mental thank you, and smiled warmly. He ignored the wine, but grabbed the delicate plate of mooncakes, and walked into his little courtyard.
He hadn't paid attention to it earlier, but the moon was indeed beautiful tonight, a perfect circle in the sky, glowing in a warm, yellow-ish light. He placed the mooncakes on the table, and took a seat on one of the stools.
It only took a second for nostalgia and sadness to spread through him. Last year he'd spend the Mid-Autumn festival with his family. There had been a big banquet, not unlike the king was holding right now, and spirits had been high throughout the night. Xie Lian had talked and laughed a lot, completely free of worries. He'd wished to stay as happy as he'd been that day for the rest of his life, but that had perhaps been too much to ask.
Now, sitting alone in this little courtyard, in a kingdom that wasn't his, with no parents and no friends his age, he couldn't help but feel incredibly lonely. There was only the moon keeping him company tonight, but it wasn't like that round disk in the sky could do anything to cheer him up.
"The roundest moon can be seen in autumn… it's time for reunions", he quoted to himself. Not that anyone was alive for him to reunite with , he thought, and couldn't hold back a tear sliding down his cheek. He wiped it away quickly.
In order to distract himself, he ate a mooncake. It was sweet and soft and Xie Lian's mood immediately lifted slightly upon tasting it.
Two days later, when they were supposed to have dance practice, Miss Fang was running late. It was an unprecedented event for Xie Lian, and he wondered if something had happened to her. They had the previous day off practice, so he hadn't actually seen her since the evening of the banquet.
He asked Banyue if she knew something, but she was as clueless as Xie Lian was himself. So he tried to approach the girls of his group, but they gave him rather nasty sideways glances as soon as he'd moved closer, so he sighed and gave up.
Just at that moment, Miss Fang walked in, looking rather windblown, and very unlike herself.
When she came to a stop in front of them, she took a moment to just look at them, before she shook her head and heaved a rather heavy sigh.
"Let me start off with this: Your performance was splendid, there are only few things I have to criticise. I'll do that in just a moment, however, first things first.
"One of you caught His Majesty's interest at the banquet", she started, and immediately got interrupted by the girls' excitement at hearing those news.
For whatever reason, Xie Lian's stomach plummeted at hearing this, and he wondered just what had happened after he'd left the banquet. Maybe the girls had realised that the king had paid a lot of attention to him, and they'd outdone themselves to draw his attention to them for the rest of night? Successfully?
Xie Lian felt a twinge in his heart at that thought, but he refused to acknowledge it.
"Quiet!", Miss Fang called, and the girls immediately ceased their blabbering. "Xie Lian, I don't know what you did, but His Majesty wants you to dance for him more frequently from now on. In his private chambers."
Xie Lian could hardly believe what he was hearing. He was happy he'd done such a good job listening to the concubines, and had apparently been rather successful at seducing the king, but he hadn't expected an outcome like this!
"Me?", he asked, just to make sure.
"Yes. I can't imagine what you did for His Majesty to come up with a request such as this, it's unprecedented, but here we are. I tried to negotiate with His Majesty to only have you dance for him once a month, to buy us some time to get your dancing up to par, but he wouldn't hear of it, and insisted on you dancing for him once a week. Which is why I decided to leave your training to someone else. His name is Mei NianQing, he should arrive here shortly. Until he does, sit down somewhere out of the way while we get back to practice here."
Stumped, Xie Lian could only follow her orders.
It didn't take all that long until Mei NianQing arrived, though Xie Lian was a bit surprised by his appearance. He seemed to be in the latter half of his thirties, but gave off the air of someone still in their twenties. He also had an aura of elegance and grace about him that Xie Lian had very rarely seen before.
Mei NianQing came up to Xie Lian as soon as he saw him.
"You must be His Majesty's new favourite dancer", was the first thing he said.
"It appears so", Xie Lian nodded, still not quite understanding how he'd ended up in this situation.
"Miss Fang told me you're also the newest addition to the group, and that you still barely even know anything about dancing."
"That is correct", Xie Lian replied, to which Mei NianQing hummed thoughtfully.
"Let's head to my quarters, the less time we lose, the better", he said, and started walking.
Xie Lian followed him.
"This is no doubt a difficult situation", Mei NianQing continued, once they'd left the dancer's chambers behind them.
"His Majesty requested for you to dance for him once a week, and surely he expects different routines every time. Usually His Majesty's request wouldn't be a problem, but you're too inexperienced, and don't know enough steps, never mind their variations, to entertain His Majesty on a weekly basis. Under normal circumstances, I could just teach you a new routine every week, however since His Majesty also requested for you to dance for him in private, there might be situations in which you might need to improvise, not unlike how things usually go at banquets. So, apart from teaching you all sorts of steps and movements, the goal should be to teach you how to feel dance, so that you can improvise as the situation requires, and be free in how you want to style your dance."
Xie Lian decided to interrupt him there.
"Uhm… may I ask what you mean by 'situations that would require me to improvise'?", he asked carefully.
"Your performance will most likely end up being an interplay with His Majesty. Depending on his mood, and how he reacts to your performance, it would be wise to adjust your dance accordingly. I saw you dancing at the banquet, and I saw how His Majesty couldn't take his eyes off of you. What you did with your eyes, looking at each other, and then not, the whole flirting part… it was already a sort of interplay, if you will."
"Ah", Xie Lian commented, understanding finally dawning on him.
Mei NianQing led him back into the inner quarters of the main palace, and Xie Lian couldn't help but wonder what sort of position the man held.
He saw the question on Xie Lian's face, and chuckled.
"You must be curious why someone who is supposed to teach you dance is living inside the main palace. I'll tell you. I've been employed as the dance instructor under the previous ruler of WuYong, however when His Majesty usurped the throne, he refrained from killing everyone on sight, apart from the previous king of course, and took the time to decide on the fate of each and every single servant of the previous ruler, one by one. Thus, I ended up as the Guoshi of his Majesty for the last few years. Nowadays my work consists of teaching His Majesty calligraphy, and being his partner in playing go. I'm honestly quite happy to go back to teaching dance for a while", Mei NianQing explained.
The size of these quarters was indeed befitting of a Guoshi, Xie Lien thought absentmindedly, however he was feeling utterly dumbfounded by something else entirely.
The current king had usurped the throne of WuYong?! How? Also, how in the world was it possible for none of the neighboring kingdoms to have heard about this? Shouldn't a change of the ruler have been reported to them?
Thinking about it now, Xie Lian could vaguely remember a report from a few years back, stating that the ruler had changed overnight and without prior notice due to… 'health concerns'... of the previous emperor. Xie Lian figured those health concerns consisted of a sudden sword through the heart, or something similar. But Xie Lian distinctly remembered that the report had stated nothing of an assassination or revolution or anything violent. He was sure of that.
How had something as major as usurping the throne not made it to the ears of literally everyone? Did the king really have such a good hold on the actions of everybody? Did he have spies planted in every country? Was that why he could decide which news to let seep out, and which news to keep under tight wraps? Was such a thing even possible? If such a thing was really possible, shouldn't it have been because the king struck terror in everyone's hearts? Had he misjudged the king that badly?
"Ah, I've said too much. Don't mind it", Mei NianQing said, and Xie Lian could only stare at him.
"I… never knew that's how the current king came to power", Xie Lian said, not letting the matter go.
The Guoshi sighed.
"It is not a known fact outside of the king's court. However, as someone who used to work under the previous emperor, all I can say about him is good riddance. He was a tyrant, and deserved every single thing His Majesty has done to him. His entire reign was a stain on WuYong as a country. I couldn't be more glad that he is gone now."
Then… maybe he hadn't misjudged the king after all? Xie Lian decided to wait until he'd gathered more information on the matter to make his final judgement.
"Now, let's start with your training, shall we?"
Xie Lian soon realised that training under the Guoshi was very much different from training under Miss Fang. Of course the guoshi had the advantage of teaching one on one, however his methods were much more hands-on as well.
While Miss Fang mostly instructed her dancers with words and some gestures, the guoshi showed him exactly what he wanted Xie Lian's dancing to look like, and didn't hesitate to slow his steps down in order to show Xie Lian what he meant in detail.
For Xie Lian, it was much easier to learn under the guoshi, than it was under Miss Fang, however, the guoshi's training also left him completely and utterly exhausted. He was ruthless, and didn't even let Xie Lian rest until he'd gotten a certain step, or a step sequence right, and even when he was allowed to rest, it was not for much longer than just one incense stick's worth of time.
When Xie Lian dragged himself to his temporary quarters, which were luckily also within the inner palace walls, and therefore not too far away, he collapsed onto his bed, barely even having the energy to take his shoes off.
He blearily realised that there was food on his table, still steaming. He sighed, and somehow managed to sit up again, wishing the food would grow wings and fly into his mouth by itself. That didn't happen of course, so Xie Lian dragged himself over to the table. He wolfed the food down in record time, dragged himself back to bed, and allowed himself to just drift off to sleep immediately. The last time he'd felt this drained had been after an intense training session on military grounds, back in Xian Le.
The next 4 days went by in much the same fashion; Xie Lian barely even had time to remember he needed to eat between sleeping and dancing and even though it was very hard work, he couldn't help but feel that it was also… fun.
Xie Lian had to admit to himself that dancing like this, under the guoshi's tutelage, had become something he actually quite enjoyed. Maybe it was because the guoshi had a different understanding of the whole concept, but he implemented some slight references to fighting stances, and sometimes even explained to him certain moves by using similar movements from martial arts as an example. It was really much easier to comprehend everything this way.
On the fifth day, the guoshi asked Xie Lian to dance, just like that, without any instructions.
So naturally, Xie Lian decided to string all the movements he particularly liked together in one way or another, the transitions not exactly pretty to look at, but at least he had fun.
The Guoshi seemed amused by his little impromptu dance, and didn't hesitate to give him more directions, before he told him to try again.
On the sixth day, the Guoshi attempted to teach Xie Lian how to make his movements look softer, and more approachable. However, he didn't go for full on seductive, as Miss Fang had attempted, and Xie Lian very much appreciated that.
His training on this day ended at noon already, to give Xie Lian time to eat lunch, and prepare himself for his performance in the evening. Before he left, the guoshi tried to give Xie Lian an impression of what would await him then.
"You will be escorted into his private chambers by General NanYang. His Majesty might, or might not be there by the time you arrive, but either way, you'll just stand out of the way of His Majesty, until His Majesty approaches you, and orders you to dance. He will most likely have a handful of musicians somewhere in the room as well, so don't worry about not having any music to dance to. His Majesty is… rather whimsical, so it's impossible to predict for how long he'll keep you, but make sure to be as pleasant for him as possible. Your job is to be easy on the eyes, nothing else. So don't talk to him, don't try to entertain him in any other ways, if you know what I mean, and for the love of everything that's holy, don't disobey him, no matter what he says."
Xie Lian gulped, but nodded. From what he knew of the king, he wasn't as scary as the guoshi made him out to be, but if he was this whimsical, then maybe Xie Lian had just been lucky so far.
Lunch was a quick thing, but getting ready took him quite a while. He'd gotten new garments delivered almost every day during the course of this week, and had a rather nice collection going on now. At first he thought that maybe he should dress in those red and black clothes again, because they were apparently the preferred colours of the king, however since the king himself always wore those colours, Xie Lian was worried he would misunderstand Xie Lian's intention if he dared to dress himself in them as well. Also, wouldn't a nice contrast to those dark colours be rather nice?
Xie Lian nodded to himself, and chose the turquoise coloured garments. Since they were all in the same style, and only the details of the cut of the tops changed, he was already very used to wearing this style of clothes by now. He also knew how to put on his head dress properly, as well as his veils, and in which order everything had to be put where. He even knew how to fasten the band of fabric to his sleeves, now that he'd seen how it was supposed to look like. He was barely even embarrassed of his exposed midriff anymore. Humans could really get used to anything, he figured.
Once he was done fastening all those chains around his hips as well, General NanYang showed up with impeccable timing. The man didn't even bat an eyelid at Xie Lian's get up, having seen him wear dancer's garments several times before, and just led him to the king's chambers without another word beyond the greeting.
The king's private quarters were a little more of a distance away from his than the Guoshi's were, and they were exceedingly luxurious; more so than his parents' chambers had been, Xie Lian realised.
The architecture was also slightly off, Xie Lian noticed immediately. It wasn't that it had bad Feng Shui or anything, just that it seemed more... connected, in a way. Of course it was also much bigger than any other buildings he'd seen so far, apart from the several halls he'd been in, and it also had much more details, little statues and carvings, and was overall just very opulent and intimidating.
It was also rather dark.
The wood and stone the houses were made out of were black, the flags marking the entrance were a dark red; and with a whole bunch of red lanterns added to it, the combination of dark colours gave off an overall somewhat creepy feeling, despite how luxurious and big it was. From what Xie Lian could see, it should be three storeys high!
General NanYang led him into the main house, and up some very detailed and delicately carved stairs, up onto the top floor, and into a very spacious room, containing a black divan on one end, and a massive bed on the other, with a whole lot of empty space in between. Xie Lian knew it was against any sort of decorum, but he couldn't help but stare at that bed. It must've been at least twice the size of the bed he used to have in Xian Le. He couldn't help but wonder if it was really as soft and comfortable as it looked.
"This is His Majesty's private entertainment room. The musicians will be brought here shortly. His Majesty said that you may already get in position to start."
Upon hearing that this was the king's entertainment room, Xie Lian immediately understood why the bed was so big, and his insides immediately turned sour. He avoided looking at it, and tried not to think about why he felt this way.
The musicians entered the room just a short while later, and got ready in a designated, small booth, which Xie Lian hadn't noticed prior to them heading over there. He was sure there were a lot of things in this room he hadn't noticed yet, but since the scare with the bed, Xie Lian was slightly afraid to take a closer look around.
So he closed his eyes, ready to dance, and waited for the king to arrive.