Aunt: Obviously, because Feifei and Xiumin are actually blood related Aunt and nephew, Xiumin is actually saying Aunt, not just politeness. And because I feel like it (though it’s unnecessary), Zitao is calling Feifei ‘ayi’, while Xiumin is calling Feifei ‘yima’. It’s unnecessary and probably will confuse you non-Chinese peoples out there, but whatever. I’m likes seeing you confusDO. XD

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The morning found Zitao bowed on his knees at Consort Jia’s feet, under the gaze of the other palace maids.

“I suppose you’ve learnt your lesson.” Consort Jia stated.

Zitao rolled his eyes, glad that since his face was almost touching the ground, she couldn’t see him. “Yes, Consort Jia, nubi won’t do it again.”

Consort Jia made a sound of approval, allowing Zitao to get up from his position. “Go fetch my new clothes from the tailor.”

Zitao nodded, backing away and shutting the door in front of him. Once he  left the room, he took a deep breath, letting out the stress. Consort Jia had partially forgiven him. If he wasn’t, he probably wouldn’t have been allowed to do anything, but he was sent on a task. But the fact that he was being sent out of the palace meant that she hadn’t fully forgiven him. Not that Zitao particularly wanted her forgiveness, but he needed to reach the upper ranks, so that he would have more power to get the other palace maids and eunuchs to search for that tree when the time comes for the eclipse to happen.

He certainly did not want to be stuck here forever.

***

Zitao was grateful for the fact that not all palace maids were as snarky and underhanded as Minying and Xiuzhi. A couple of more senior palace maids had told him where the tailor was. Zitao was walking along the cobbled road, still dressed in his palace maid uniform, though with a coat over the top, because it was a little chilly out.

He came to a building, which pretty much told him that he had reached his destination. Emblazoned in faded golden letters over the entrance were the words ‘ROYAL TAILOR’. The fact that you worked for the royal family was something that you would want to flaunt, Zitao supposed. The building itself didn’t look that grand however. It was large, but made out of a dark wood, a typical commoners house really, only larger. He knocked on the door, almost instantly, the sounds of footsteps started towards the door.

“Yes?” a boy, shorter than Zitao opened the door. The first thing Zitao noticed was his cheeks. They almost screamed ‘Squish me!’, and it took quite a lot of Zitao’s self control not to do exactly that. He was fond of cute things.

“Um, hello?” the boy repeated. Zitao realised that he hadn’t replied to the boy’s inquiry, snapping out of his thoughts.

“I was sent to pick up Consort Jia’s clothes?” Zitao said. The boy ‘Ah’ed then opened the door wider, allowing Zitao in. Inside was much more lavishly furnished. It had quite a few tables, a lot of rolls of fabric and the necessary equipment for the sewing and making of clothes. The boy led Zitao past all the equipment, to a room which separated itself from the equipment room with a small divider. The room held a table and a few chairs, it was evident that this was the dining room. Zitao sat on the chair after the boy told him to, waiting there.

“Please wait for a bit, they just need final checks.” The boy returned, holding a tray with a teapot and a few teacups on it. He set the tray down, pouring Zitao a cup of tea, then one for himself, and then another one, which he put in front of a third seat. Zitao accepted his tea politely, refusing to let the bad memories get to him.

“Xiumin, they’re ready for the young lady.” A woman walked out of another room, holding a large package in her hands. Zitao choked on his tea, spraying it across the table top, the boy who he now knew as Xiumin flinching away from the liquid.

“Aunt Feifei?!” Zitao gasped, standing up and knocking his chair over in the process, pointing an accusing finger at the woman.

“Zitao! How lovely to see you again.” Feifei smiled warmly, gesturing for Zitao to sit back down again, which he did unconsciously. She sat down, picking up the cup of tea that had been set out for her.

“Aunt Feifei, I thought you lived in the village, what are you doing here?” Zitao spluttered.

“Can’t an aunt visit her favourite nephew?” Feifei replied, gesturing to Xiumin.

Xiumin rolled his eyes. “I’m your only nephew, Aunt Feifei*.” Xiumin said. Feifei shrugged.

“B-But---“ Zitao was unable to form coherent words. He felt quite cheated, if Aunt Feifei lived this close to the Imperial palace, why bother making him become a palace maid and age 10 years with all the stress from living there.

“Alright, Zitao. Xiumin’s mother, and my sister died while giving birth to my nephew, unfortunately. And even more unfortunately, my brother-in-law has passed away as well, leaving only Xiumin here to run his shop. So I came down to take care of him. And help out with my brother-in-law’s store as well.” Feifei explained.

Zitao looked down at his lap. “Oh… sorry…”

Feifei waved a hand, smiling. “You have nothing to apologise for. Now if you will excuse me…” Feifei stood up, setting down her teacup and left the room. Xiumin stood up as well, picking up the package that Feifei had left and handing it to Zitao. “Your clothes are ready.” Xiumin smiled. Zitao fought back the urge to squish his cheeks.

“Thank you Xiumin.” Zitao smiled. Xiumin looked stunned for a while, freezing up before gathering his senses again, moving the package to Zitao’s hands.

“Please come again.” Xiumin recited, like he had learnt that off heart. Zitao gave Xiumin an amused glance, bowing on his way out. Xiumin’s really nice Zitao thought, as he walked back to the palace.

***

Consort Jia wasn’t in her room when Zitao arrived back, asking the other palace maids (not Minying or Xiuzhi, Zitao would be out of his mind to ask help from those two), Zitao realised that Consort Jia had gone to a meeting. It was unusual, in his opinion. All the Emperor’s lovers would gather in one room and they would talk. From that palace maid, she said that it usually involved the lower rank concubines sneering at the other ones, and then they would bully one person, until the Empress, on in this case, Imperial Noble Consort Jia cut it out. The meeting would last quite a while, until afternoon tea, and since it was only lunch time, the palace maids who served the concubines had been given free time, which Zitao gladly accepted.

Zitao decided that he would rather not return to the palace maid quarters. As Junmian served the 4^th-prince, she wouldn’t be back there, but Minying and Xiuzhi certainly would. And Zitao was not going to give them the satisfaction of using him as a stress reliever. So he wandered aimlessly down the garden walkways. The flowers and other plants were so neatly kept, it was amazing. He looked up from over the top of a blue flower bush, seeing the 4^th-prince and his procession of eunuchs and palace maids walk past on the balcony pathways. Zitao raised his hand in greeting, Yixing nodding his head in acknowledgement with a smile, Junmian stopping entirely and waving back with a huge smile. Zitao laughed, noting the way Junmian blushed when Yixing had to stop and return to pick up the stray palace maid.

“Zitao!”

Startled, Zitao nearly fell forward which would have inevitably squashed the pretty flower bush. He scowled, shaking his hand to remove the petals of the crushed flower inside his palm. The voice was most definitely the 8^th-prince’s voice, did he really find that much amusement in watching him fail?

“Yes, 8^th-prince?” Zitao fought to keep his words from coming out as an annoyed growl, keeping his voice level and neutral.

“You shouldn’t be looking at 4^th-ge---“

And there he goes again. Zitao clenched his hands into tight fists, hardening his expression. “Why? Because I’m not good enough? Because I’m just a low class palace maid?” Zitao spat out.

“---because you are my woman!”

It was so silent for a while, the crickets were chirping loudly, like how they did in dramas. Zitao froze, looking shocked, before turning red, his eyebrows drawing together in anger.

“Yours?! I’m not a possession that you can add to your collection! You…!” Zitao groaned in frustration, throwing his hands up and stomping off.

Now it was Yifan’s turn to be shocked. He stared after the direction that Zitao had left, looking like a lost child, who didn’t know what he had done wrong. Which was exactly the case.

“What did I do wrong?” Yifan turned around.

“8^th-ge, maybe you should, you know, let go of your… pride for a while?” Baixian said. The 10^th-prince and 9^th-prince had been watching the entire exchange, acting as moral support for the 8^th-prince.

“Yea, like 9^th-ge said, just be less princely when talking to Zitao.” Canlie said.

“Be less princely? But I’m not even the type who acts like a swollen-headed prince all the time, unlike him.” Yifan scathingly hissed out the last part. It was clear to anyone who saw, that Yifan was referring to 4^th-prince Yixing.

“Well, hate to break it to you 8^th-ge, but you act like that around Zitao.” Canlie sighed, shaking his head and placing a hand on Yifan’s shoulder. Baixian hit Yifan on the back lightly.

“Why don’t you go after her, and try that again?” Baixian advised gently, pushing Yifan along until the 8^th-prince got it into his head, running along of his own accord.

***

Zitao frowned, picking up yet another pebble from beside where he was seated and threw it into the large pond. It fell into the water with a satisfying ‘plop’.

“Zitao!” Zitao hissed through his teeth, standing up and whirling around to face the 8^th-prince.

“What now?”

“I-I…” Yifan hesitated, looking away at the sky. Zitao rolled his eyes, going to leave.

“Wait Zitao! I-I-I’m sorry… about earlier…”

Zitao stopped. “It takes you that long to get an apology out?”

“Shut up, I don’t apologise, I’m a prince. Be grateful you got an apology out of me.”

Zitao sighed at the last part, turning to leave again.

“Zitao! The last part… ignore it. Look, can we… you know, start again?” Yifan looked down at his feet awkwardly.

“Start again?”

“Yea.” Yifan looked up, with a smile. “Hello, I’m 8^th-prince Yifan. And what’s your name?”

Zitao finally laughed at Yifan’s childishness. It was weird, usually he would be angry for such an act for longer. A lot longer. A simple apology wasn’t enough. But at the sight of Yifan’s smile, the anger seemed to melt away, for some reason, Zitao couldn’t stay angry at the 8^th-prince for long.

“Nice to meet you 8^th-prince, my name is Zitao.”

***

It was to be expected that his high would come crashing down once he had to get back to work. Consort Jia was fuming again, he had heard from gossip spread by the palace maids present at the meeting, that Consort Jia had been picked on. There was talk about Consort Jia being simply another neglected concubine, with the Emperor’s latest concubine and current favourite, Consort Liu preening about the attention that the Emperor directed at her.

“I need to do something. How dare that lowly Consort Liu think she can best me!” Consort Jia slammed her fist down on the table, causing a teacup to fall and smash against the ground. She paid it no notice as two palace maids hurried to get it cleaned up.

“Zitao!” Consort Jia pointed her finger at the palace maid.

What is with people yelling my name today? Zitao thought. “Yes, Consort Jia.”

“You helped with the idea last time. Think of another one! The Emperor is having a gathering with 6 of his concubines next week, of course I’m there, so is that Imperial Noble Consort Qian, and that pathetic Consort Liu. Do something!” Consort Jia screeched.

Zitao nodded his head dumbly. “Of course, Consort Jia. Nubi will get to work on it right away.”

***

Zitao flinched before relaxing when Junmian’s fingers touched his face, gently massaging his head.

“Zitao-meimei, you look stressed.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Zitao did look rather stressed when he returned to the palace maid quarters that night.

“I’m fine, don’t worry yourself Junmian-jiejie.” Zitao mumbled, pushing away her hands carefully. The door slammed open at that moment, Zitao opening his eyes and twisting so that he could see the intruders.

Minying and Xiuzhi.

“.”

“.”

Junmian cringed at the harsh words Minying and Xiuzhi had said. Zitao raised his eyebrows at them, wondering what all the fuss was about.

“Such dirty words for a lady, what would your fathers say?” Zitao mocked, smirking. He ignored the light whacks on his back made by Junmian.

“Stop trying to change the subject Zitao. We know.” Minying smirked.

Zitao’s blood ran cold. Were they possibly referring to the fact that he was a boy? No, it couldn’t be possible, the two were as dumb as a pair of goldfish. There was no way they could possibly know.

“You’re sleeping with the 8^th-prince.” Xiuzhi declared.

The absurdity of the statement made Zitao choke on nothing except the air before he started laughing. He laughed so hard that he rolled off the bed, clutching at his stomach as the laughter reached the level where it couldn’t be heard anymore.

“Oh god, I’m crying, my stomach h-hurts.” Zitao managed to say before choking on his laughter again.

“Stop laughing! Disrespectful!” Minying yelled, her face red at being made fun of by Zitao.

“Respect? And what would you know about respect?” Zitao laughed, wiping away his tears.

“A lot more than you do.” Xiuzhi snapped. Minying put out a hand to stop her.

“Not the reason why we came. Stop avoiding the subject, you .” Another cringe from Junmian. “We know what you’re doing, you’re so going to get punished for this.”

Zitao laughed. “Sure, sure, and where’s your proof? Do you think that you have the power, that whatever you say goes? Come back later, when your head palace maid, then we’ll see.”

Minying narrowed her eyes. “I’ll hold that to you, Zitao.” She spat his name out like it was dirt. The door slammed behind them once they left, Junmian staring at Zitao with wide eyes.

“What they said, was it true?” Junmian questioned.

Zitao laughed. “Do you think that sounds like me?” A shake of Junmian’s head. “Then there’s your answer, Junmian-jiejie. Now, can we sleep? Arguing with those two has made me more tired.”

Junmian laughed, ruffling Zitao’s hair and making her way to her bed.

“Good night, meimei.”

“Good night.”

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A/N: What. Did. I. Just. Write. Ok, don't kill me, I don't know how the last part came about. It just spewed out of my mind before i could stop it. I don't know why I wrote that. But it's not too bad, it solved a problem I had ;) oh yes, here's a hint for you. Xiumin was introduced! I considered using the Chinese equlivalent of Minseok for his name, but I decided that Xiumin is good enough. He's going to be a pretty important character, cos I love that baozi. He just seemed like the perfect choice. Ok, maybe just cos I had to put an M member in there, and between Xiumin and Chen, I think Xiumin is better suited.

- Lulu