Wolf King and his Fox Consort [BL]

A deep silence fell after Master Chen's words, all their eyes were turned to the girl who looked so out-of-place in her clean robes. Her lips were pulled back in a savage snarl, but she said nothing.

Chu Yun didn't know what feelings inhabited everyone else's silences, but for his part he felt a deep, all-encompassing sorrow.

Somehow, her tragedy too was his fault. He swallowed thickly around the knot in his throat. "What...what is her name?"

"She answers to A-Ran, even though she doesn't speak, her hearing is fine." Master Chen spoke about her with compassion, his tone mellow, not at all like the man Chu Yun had met when he and Xiao Zai went to Harmonious Resonance.

Perhaps he felt a kinship with her due to his own disability, perhaps simply her story had moved him.

Chu Yun turned to the Queen Dowager. "Should we write to inform the King of Su?"

The corners of her thin lips pitched downwards in a frown. "No," she said, chin trembling with conviction. "That man has done enough. Xiao Yao was a good man, better than Xiao An in every way, but he was too trusting. He fell for sweet words of love and lived only long enough to pay the price."

Master Chen's expression darkened. "Too much trust and too much love are the ingredients of many of the world's tragedies."

The Queen Dowager shot the old master an appraising look. "Indeed." She was now looking at him with renewed interest, as if taking his measure for the first time.

Chu Yun too didn't understand the source of his cryptic comments. There was an hostility to him that seemed to flare up when the Queen Dowager spoke.
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Xiao Zai cleared his throat pointedly. "What is Her Royal Highness planning to do concerning A-Ran's lodgings then? She is a member of the royal house of Zui as much as of Su."

"That she is." The Widow Queen smiled, the warmest smile Chu Yun had ever seen her attempt and reached out towards A-Ran. "I'm afraid Ru Long is entirely lost to us, but I will look after Xiao Yao's other child. It's the least I can do for him."

A-Ran inspected the Queen's outstretched hand with deep suspicion. But while she didn't reach out, neither did she recoil. Chu Yun could tell the Queen Dowager considered it a victory.

She was a patient woman.

He thought he was only now beginning to understand how much.

"Well, I have fulfilled the contract on Harmonious Resonance's behalf, and shall now take my leave," Master Chen said stiffly.

That was an interesting point. Why had he come in person?

Master Chen addressed A-Ran with a kindly smile. "You will be well looked after, child."

Xiao Zai gestured towards the door. "We will escort Master Chen out."

Chu Yun followed Xiao Zai out of the room so that for a moment only the Queen Dowager, Master Chen and A-Ran stayed inside.

When Master Chen was about to step out, the Queen Dowager's hand shot out with unexpected vigour to stop him. "So it is you. I wondered, but your scent..."

Master Chen shook her off as if burned. He touched the white ribbon over his eyes self-consciously. The first Chu Yun had seen him do it.

"I haven't been the person her Royal Highness remembers in a long time." He turned away from the Queen, his stately profile revealing nothing.

"Tang Fan...all this time, I thought you were dead." Her voice wavered, strangled with tears.

Chu Yun remembered well the Queen Mother's tale. Her three years with Tang Fan, the miraculous pregnancy she was forced to abort, and the terrible torture Xiao An's father had subjected Tang Fan to.

For a moment there was silence, as the two former lovers regarded each other across the distance of decades -- Tang Fan in dignified silence, unaware of the tears that had started streaming down the Queen Dowager's face.

"They told me you knew," he said, sounding for the first time as frail as he looked. "They told me you said they could do whatever they wanted with me as long as the King spared you."

A terrible sound tried to crawl out of the Queen's throat but was drowned by a sob. "I would never! I hoped for death every night...for years after I had nightmares about what that bastard told me they did to you." She lowered her head in shame. "To this day...I have to tell myself not to flinch when I see royal guards."

Xiao Zai looked between the two of them in confusion, but privately Chu Yun was glad he wasn't interrupting. He wasn't even sure they should be witnessing such a private moment.

Master Chen's fingers were shaking on his staff, beads of sweat dotted his temples. "You never tried to find me, I thought they were telling the truth," he smiled bitterly, "the last thing they did, after raping me for days, was gauge out my eyes for daring to covet the King's property."

The Queen Dowager threw her arms around Tan Fang's neck with savage intensity, for a moment it was as if she was a much younger woman. "I killed that bastard, and Xiao An is dead now too. I got revenge, I did it for you."

With quiet dignity, Master Chen extricated himself from her embrace. "You did that for yourself. Like I said, I haven't been Tan Fang in a long time. And I have no interest in becoming him again."

He turned towards the Queen Dowager, the old lover with whom he'd almost had a child, and bowed, "I hope her Royal Highness will take good care of A-Ran, she deserves a quiet life."

He turned to Xiao Zai and bowed yet more deeply. "This untalented teacher thanks his Majesty for his generous offer, but he'll see himself out, no reason for his Majesty to concern himself with this one's presence."

And then he left, steadying his steps on the walking staff with dignified grace.