For the sake of it, here are the rankings of the concubines. Common sense would have told you that ‘Imperial Noble Consort’ is higher than ‘Consort’, but still. I’m just going to list them, from highest ranking, to lowest ranking. Empress --> Imperial Noble Consort --> Noble Consort --> Consort --> Imperial Concubine --> Noble Lady --> First Class Female Attendant --> Second Class Female Attendant. Think of it like a pyramid, obviously, there is only one Empress, but there may be as many Noble Ladies and lower rankings as the Emperor pleases.

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When Consort Jia returned to her quarters, she was in a very bad mood. Words could not describe her rage. She sat herself down on her chair, her eyebrows knitted together in a way that would cause permanent wrinkles.

“Tea!” Consort Jia yelled. Her other two palace maids had gone to fetch her jewellery box, which she would look at and admire when she was mad. Minying and Xiuzhi stared and Zitao, and he resignedly went to the far corner of the room, where the tea was sitting. He picked up the tray, transporting it towards where Consort Jia was sitting. But when he was walking past Minying and Xiuzhi, he tripped, landing flat on his face and spilling the tea, thankfully, it did not land on Consort Jia, but it did land on her shoe. Zitao knew that the thing he tripped over was not a non-existent bump in the floor. If anything, the way that Minying and Xiuzhi were snickering told him everything.

“Pathetic palace maid, have you no sense?!” Consort Jia screamed. Zitao flinched, getting down into a full on bow. “You got tea on my shoes!”

“Nubi is sorry, nubi didn’t mean it, please Consort Jia have mercy.” Zitao stuttered out. It didn’t work, Consort Jia was in the foulest mood and was no means going to let Zitao go for that.

“You must be punished for that. Eunuchs!” At Consort Jia’s command, two eunuchs appeared, picking Zitao up by the arms and dragging him out. Zitao sighed, not wanting to lose his dignity at least, by screaming his head off.

***

The punishment was what Zitao had expected, but he had hoped his knowledge was incorrect. For something as meagre, well it wasn’t meagre when it involved the royal family, but for simply spilling tea on Consort Jia’s shoes, he was to be given 20 beatings. Zitao balked when he reached the room, there was a table, which the accused was to lie upon, and there were a few wooden sticks, not anything like the ones for wushu, propped against the wall.

Now was a good time to start resisting.

Zitao stood his ground, driving his heels down so that the eunuchs could pull him no further. He had strength after all, from all that wushu training, and the eunuchs couldn’t get him to move.

“Stop resisting, palace maid.” One eunuch said.

Zitao rolled his eyes. “So you’re saying I should just be fine with getting hit? That’s illegal!”

“What illegal? The royal family’s word is law.” The other eunuch said.

Crap Zitao thought. Maybe now he understood why the ones who were going to get punished screamed a lot and begged like crazy.

“What seems to be the problem here?”

Zitao attempted to turn, to see the person who had just entered, but because his arms were being held by the two eunuchs, he couldn’t do that, so he settled for flipping his head backwards to see. An upside-down Yixing greeted him.

“4^th-prince!” the two eunuchs dropped Zitao immediately, opting to get down and bow instead. Zitao rubbed his arms in irritation, they had gripped them pretty hard.

“Rise.” Yixing said.

“Thank you, 4^th-prince.”

“What is the problem?” Yixing asked again.

“4^th-prince, this palace maid is refusing to carry out her punishment as a result of her misbehaviour.” One eunuch volunteered.

“Is that so? I’ll take her off your hands then.” Yixing smiled.

“4^th-prince, we cannot---“

“I’ll see to her punishment. You will tell Consort Jia that she is undertaking it as commanded.”

The eunuchs bowed, handing over Zitao to Yixing. Zitao gaped at the display, did the 4^th-prince have such a power?

***

“Thank you very much, 4^th-prince.” Zitao bowed for the umpteenth time. Yixing chuckled raising a hand, telling Zitao to stop.

“You’re welcome. Tell me though, what did you do to incur Consort Jia’s wrath?” Yixing curiously asked. Zitao sheepishly scratched at the back of his neck.

“I spilled tea on Consort Jia’s shoe.” Zitao admitted. Yixing chuckled yet again.

“I suppose accidents happen, do not worry. Well you best return to your palace maid quarters for today, Consort Jia would not want to see you again after she has sent you off to be punished. I’ll see you around, Zitao.” Yixing raised a hand, and Zitao waved a goodbye as Yixing left. Once the 4^th-prince was out of his sight, the smile died down on his face, his hand dropping down.

Why was it that the entire conversation, Zitao could not stop thinking about Yifan. It’s true, that he had won the competition, and effectively, for an entire day, Yifan would leave him alone. But strangely enough, he missed the 8^th-prince’s presence around him. If Zitao had been having that conversation with Yifan instead of Yixing, he could so clearly imagine Yifan’s reaction. ‘Stupid palace maid, you spilled the tea? How careless.’ And then the two would have gotten into some argument, which strangely enough, Zitao enjoyed having those arguments.

***

“Junmian-jiejie.” Zitao warmly greeted his best friend as she walked through the door of their room.

“Zitao-meimei! You’re back early today!” True to his word, Zitao had returned to the palace maid quarters, which was where he practically spend the last 6 or so hours, catching up on his sleep. It was now nightfall, and the other palace maids were returning to the quarters as well.

“Yea…” Zitao said.

“I heard you got in trouble, what happened?” Junmian looked concerned, sitting on the bed next to Zitao.

“I spilled tea on Consort Jia’s shoe.”

“You didn’t!”

“Yea.”

Junmian rubbed circles into Zitao’s back. “What did she do?”

“Sent me to get 20 beatings.” Zitao shrugged.

“20 beatings?! Does it hurt?” Junmian immediately started fussing over Zitao looking to see if she could see any visible bruises or scars.

“4^th-prince Yixing helped me out of it. Don’t tell anyone though.” Zitao put a finger over his lips, telling Junmian to shush about it. Junmian widened her eyes, before a dreamy smile spread over her face.

“Of course he did. 4^th-prince is such a nice prince…” Junmian gushed. Zitao pasted a smile onto his face.

“Yea, he is.”

Junmian suddenly whirled around, grabbing Zitao’s arm hard. “Zitao-meimei, you can’t tell anyone else this ok?” Zitao nodded, wondering what it was that Junmian was going to say. “I…I think I’ve fallen in love with 4^th-prince Yixing.”

Zitao waited for the rock to fall, for his heart to wrench apart in pain that his best friend was in love with the prince he had looked up to so much. But it didn’t happen.

“Zitao-meimei?”

Zitao shook his head, smiling a genuine smile. “I’m happy for you Junmian-jiejie. Chase after him. Go!” A shocked look flashed across Junmian’s face before she squealed, hugging Zitao so tightly she could chock him.

“Thank you Zitao! I thought you liked him as well though.” Junmian said, still hugging Zitao.

She knew Zitao thought, shocked. “I thought I did too, but it’s turns out it’s just admiration.” Zitao smiled, realising how true those words were. It felt like a weight was being lifted off his chest, but admitting that out loud.

“Junmian-jiejie, I’m going to go for a walk, ok?” Zitao gently pried her arms off him. Junmian nodded, her face still shining.

***

Zitao breathed in the cold night air, letting it clear and order his thoughts. The words he said to Junmian, they were true, and he kept repeating them in his head.

“Hello again, Zitao.” Yixing greeted Zitao again. He was walking around the outer court yet again.

“4^th-prince!” Zitao waved, walking over to where Yixing was standing.

“Did something good happen, Zitao? You’re shining so brightly today.” Yixing mused. Zitao froze for a second, before nodding his head.

“I realised something important.”

“I hope it’s something good?”

Zitao nodded again. “Very good. Thank you for being so helpful to me.”

Yixing raised his eyebrow before laughing slightly. “It was my pleasure Zitao.” Yixing answered, bemused.

Zitao  walked a few paces from Yixing before, turning to face the 4^th-prince again. “Goodbye 4^th-prince.”

Yixing looked amused. “Sleep well Zitao.”

Zitao smiled, putting his hand up in a wave, turning and leaving. He didn’t intend to come back to this place anymore, a place that had been a meeting place for him and the 4^th-prince. It was a reminder of his one-sided love for the 4^th-prince, which turned out to be a foolish misconception on his behalf. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to remember that, but he didn’t want to get in the way of Junmian pursuing the 4^th-prince. If they continued to meet, Junmian would no doubt misinterpret that and Zitao did not want to take any chances when it involved losing his only friend.

***

“4^th-ge saved Zitao from being punished.” Canlie said. Yifan hissed angrily, scowling darkly and punching the nearest tree. At this time in night, the 8^th-prince, 9^th-prince and 10^th-prince were wandering around in the gardens.

Yifan cleared his expression, pretending that his fist was not throbbing from having used the tree as a anger venting device. “Why should I care?”

Canlie and Baixian sighed, shaking their heads. “Because you’re awfully interested in that palace maid.” Baixian supplied.

“Only because I’m questioning her identity.” Yifan countered.

“Is that really all?” A sly smile came over Canlie’s face.

Yifan remained silent to that, which led to Canlie’s smile widening. “You like that palace maid.” When Yifan didn’t deny it, Canlie squealed, a very un-manly high pitched one at that.

“8^th-ge is growing up!” Canlie mock sobbed, hugging Baixiain, the two of them taunting Yifan.

“I’m older than you!” Yifan fumed.

“Seriously, 8^th-ge, you’ve been in a bad mood all day because Zitao told you to stay away from her for a day.” Baixian said. Yifan refused to meet Baixian and Canlie’s gaze, stalking off ahead.

“You know,” Baixian said loud enough so that Yifan, who was now almost 50 metres away from the other two princes. “Zitao seems so interested in 4^th-ge.” That caught Yifan’s attention, he stopped in his tracks.

Canlie caught on, smirking. “And 4^th-ge is so nice to her as well, who wouldn’t at least like him?” By now the two princes had caught up with Yifan, the 8^th-prince standing on the spot, frozen.

“I told her to stay away from 4^th-ge.” Yifan said, sounding so dejected, like a lost puppy almost. It was like the fight had gone out of him.

“You don’t want 4^th-ge to win over you again, do you?” Baixian coaxed. Yifan nodded dumbly, Canlie lamenting that there about why hadn’t someone invented something that recorded moments. (aka the modern day camcorder)

“So be a man and do something!” Baixian hit Yifan on the back.

“Alright! 9^th-di, you give decent advice.” Yifan said, and Baixian preened under the praise. “And what do you mean ‘again’? 4^th-ge hasn’t won. What are you talking about?”

Canlie sighed, rolling his eyes. “8^th-ge is so childish sometimes.”

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A/N: Woah, I feel like a lot happened in this chapter. Did I make it too rushed? Sorry, I'm very patient XD Zitao finally gives up on Yixing, Yifan finally half-admits it. And Junmian is just being a love struck girl with stars in her eyes. Also, just saying, way back in Chapter 1 (actually not that way back), I wrote that the eclipse happens again after 14 years. I'm changing that to 4 years. It's not important now, but it will be later. So yea... just saying ^^

Do you like my poster? I made it cos I'm bored. I know it's not very good, but hey whatever. Yea, I know Yixing and Yifan aren't supposed to look modern, but they haven't dressed up in imperial garments before, nor is my photoshopping skills good enough for that. If anyone else can make a better poster (not hard you know, since mine ), please make it for me! ^^

- Lulu