That night, just as Governess Hsu had predicted, Ye An snuck out of the palace clothed in dark commoner's clothes. She was dressed as a traveling scholar, the upper half of her hair pinned into a bun on top of her head with a hat made from thin rattan that had a hole in the middle placed through her bun. The hat even had black organza flowing down from its rims past her waist to conceal her face.

Through the organza, Xi Chen saw that the young emperor even carried a small bag made from cloth on his back to complete the look. Xi Chen had been keeping an eye on the emperor's residence since late afternoon. The young emperor waited for an hour after lights out before sneaking out of his residence and selected a quiet area to climb over the palace walls as Xi Chen watched. Xi Chen noticed how skillful and familiar the emperor was in his motion as he climbed the wall and knew that this was not the first time the emperor had done this.

Once out of the palace, Ye An walked towards the direction of the city square and passed through it. As she reached the outskirts on the other side of the city, she turned south. As Xi Chen followed behind the young emperor while keeping in mind to be at least a few meters away, his alertness started to sky-rocket. How did the emperor know of such a place? Did he come to this place in his previous outings as well?

It was Xi Chen's first time here and the place they ended up at seemed to be the red light district of the city. Shady bars and taverns lined the streets that were dotted with semi-conscious drunkards. There were high-pitched peals of laughter and loud voices. Men were stumbling out of brothels with women hanging onto them. Some of the men were even wearing their official uniforms as they exited the brothels.

One of the government officials who stepped out of a brothel with a throng of women nearly knocked into Xi Chen. It was this brothel that the young emperor stepped into. Xi Chen was taken aback. He thought that this was extremely out of character for the seemingly stoic young emperor. But what did he know, technically he only had his first meeting with him this morning.

As Xi Chen entered the brothel, a group of women rushed over to welcome him, their hands all over him.

"Sir! Welcome! What service would you like to have?"

"Good sir, come follow Xiao Xi to Xiao Xi's room!"

"Sir, I can play guzheng for you to fall asleep to. Come to my room!"

The women blocked him from following the emperor deeper into the brothel. He lost sight of the emperor as Ye An went down one of the many corridors leading away from the entrance.

*******

Ye An walked through a maze of corridors until she reached the large manmade pond in the middle of the brothel. The pond reflected the perfectly clear night sky overhead as Ye An headed towards the third room on her right. She had been here multiple times and it was easy to find her way in this labyrinth of a brothel. She knocked on the wooden door frame of the sliding door covered in parchment paper in a staccato rhythm of 2-3-2.

"Come in." A sweetly feminine voice called out from inside the room.

Ye An slid the door open and stepped inside, before quietly closing the door again.

"My lord, to what do I owe this pleasure?" A scantily-clad prostitute with delicate features greeted Ye An playfully while lying on her side as she puffed on a long pipe.

The room was draped in cloths of different shades of yellow made from different types of fabrics. Even the owner of the room had on clothes that were made from pieces of yellow fabric.

"Xiao Yan, it's nice to meet you again too. I'll just cut to the important stuff. I need information on the recent invasion at the northern border." Ye An stated as she sat on the cushion opposite the young woman, a low table between them.

"Xiao An, you sure get down to business quickly. Xiao Yan is sad." Xiao Yan pouted as she flitted over to Ye An's back, her hands caressing Ye An's shoulders through the black organza as she entered Ye An's personal space and blinked her eyes coquettishly at Ye An. At this distance, Ye An could see the glitter on Xiao Yan's eyelids.

"Xiao Yan, don't play. You know I'm not one of your regular customers." Ye An simply replied Xiao Yan.

"Psh. You're no fun. Fine, I'll get that information. Give me a week." Xiao Yan went back to her place and started pouring a cup of tea for Ye An.

"A week? I know you can do better. You're the Yellow Canary." Ye An used Xiao Yan's nickname to challenge her.

"Fine. Three days. You know. You don't even visit me often enough but you're so demanding every time we meet." Xiao Yan pouted again.

"Thanks, Xiao Yan. I need this information as soon as possible. I suspect that there's more to this invasion. I owe you this time." Ye An said as she took a sip of her tea.

"Don't worry about it, my lord. You saved my life all those years ago. You don't owe me anything. Hmm.. Well, maybe your heart?" Xiao Yan replied jokingly.

"Funny. So how are things these days?" Ye An smiled at Xiao Yan to change the subject.

"You know. Same old, same old." Xiao Yan answered nonchalantly.

"Any customers still bothering you?"

"Thanks to you, none. The madam wouldn't even let me have any of the new customers anymore and I'm only stuck with the few regulars that I always have." Xiao Yan said, almost accusingly.

"I don't understand why you insist on working here out of all places." Ye An shook her head at Xiao Yan.

"I like it here. You think I'm taken advantage of but I'm not. It's an exchange. A transaction. A few hours of my body for a few hundred yuan. A pretty fair exchange, I would say. And this is the only way I know to make sure that I have a full belly and a roof over my head."

"If it's food and shelter that you need, you know that I can help."

"And? Would you have me depending on you for the rest of my life and marry me?"

"I don't mind having you depend on me but you know that the latter is not possible."

"So I'll just be your charity case? What's the difference between that and being handicapped?"

"Fine, do what you want to do. I'm leaving. I'll be back in three days." Ye An decided not to argue with Xiao Yan.

With that, Ye An stood up to leave. After closing the door behind her, she started walking towards the corridor she came from earlier as she spoke to no one in particular.

"Lieutenant Yun, you can come down from the roof now."

Xi Chen managed to escape the women at the entrance to climb the brothel roof and was successful in locating the emperor only a while ago and accidentally eavesdropped on what sounded like a lovers' quarrel.

"My apologies, Your Majesty. I didn't mean to eavesdrop." Xi Chen leaped down from the roof to kneel on one knee and bow in front of Ye An.

"Doesn't matter. Just go back to the palace. Don't think I haven't noticed you following me here the entire time. And a word of advice, lieutenant, your light-colored clothes don't blend that well into the night. Did the Empress Mother put you up to this?" Ye An asked but thought better of it. "No, it's probably not her. If it was her, she would've instructed you to stop me from even leaving the palace grounds. Governess Hsu then, isn't it?"

"Let me escort you back to the palace, Your Imperial Majesty." Xi Chen switched the subject.

"Go back without me. I'll be back before dawn tomorrow." Ye An exited the brothel through the entrance that she came in with the young lieutenant following closely behind.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I'll accompany you." Xi Chen rushed to inform the young emperor.

"Go back, Lieutenant Yun. That is an imperial order." Ye An waved him off and continued walking in the direction of the city square.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I am just trying to do my job."

Ye An finally stopped walking at that and turned to look sharply at Xi Chen.

"Your job, Lieutenant Yun, is to listen to my orders. Or is your job to follow everyone else's orders instead of mine?"

"Your Imperial Majesty, my job is to protect you. As simple as that. And I won't be able to do that if you insist on me leaving you alone." Xi Chen pleaded sincerely.

Ye An let out a deep sigh. She didn't have time for this back and forth. It's been a while since she snuck out of the palace and she wasn't going to let something as trivial as this dampen her mood.

"Fine. But keep your distance to at least five meters away." Ye An simply said as she walked ahead. Ye An turned her head slightly to Xi Chen. "And don't let me find out that you reported any of this to the Empress Mother or General Shao."

"Of course, Your Majesty. My loyalty is only to you."

"We'll see."

*******

After they left the brothel, the young emperor went to the midnight market that opened through the night and would only close at dawn. Xi Chen followed behind as Ye An stopped at the various stalls, the sheet of black organza cascading from the rim of her hat billowing behind her.

The last time Ye An snuck out of the palace was most probably months ago. She was not going to return before spending her precious night out until dawn came. She stopped at a stall selling pottery and bought a teapot set for Governess Hsu. Ye An figured that the teapot set would be able to ease the governess' scolding when she returned to the palace.

Ye An then approached a vendor who was selling tanghulu. She passed the money to the elderly vendor as she took three tanghulus from him.

"Ah. I've never seen a young man so enamored by my tanghulus." The vendor remarked in delight as Ye An smiled sheepishly at the elderly man.

It was almost two in the morning when Xi Chen called out to the emperor.

"Your Imperial Majesty?"

"Five meters, Lieutenant Yun."

"My apologies, Your Imperial Majesty. But I was just wondering if it's time for us to head back?"

"You go ahead, lieutenant. I never stopped you from returning to the palace. I'll be spending the night at the inn down the street."

"It's fine, Your Imperial Majesty. I will follow you then." Xi Chen thought that the young emperor would just head back to the brothel to spend the night with Xiao Yan once he left. For some reason, he was uneasy about that.

"You're going to spend the night with me?" Ye An's cocked an eyebrow at the lieutenant through the sheet of organza.

"Uh- I- I only meant that I'll just stay in the room next to yours, Your Imperial Majesty."

"Suit yourself." Ye An couldn't find any more energy to argue with the lieutenant and decided to just give up her efforts of trying to shake him off as they approached the inn.

There was a pair of bright red lanterns hanging on each side of the small doorway lighting the outside of the inn. On the inside, the interior of the inn was quiet and dimly lit by only a handful of candles. The innkeeper was snoring softly at the reception desk until Ye An rapped her knuckles on the desk which jolted the burly innkeeper awake.

"Welcome to Red Lantern Inn and Tavern, my lords." the innkeeper rumbled lazily between yawns.

"We would like two rooms. One for me and one for this gentleman beside me." Ye An requested in a firm voice. Xi Chen once again got the picture that this wasn't the emperor's first time doing this.

"I'm sorry but there's only a single room left. And there's only one bed in that room. So only one person is allowed." The innkeeper replied apologetically.

"Well, lieutenant. I guess that's your cue to leave." Ye An turned to the lieutenant, barely hiding her glee.

"I don't need a bed. Can I crash in the room as well?" Xi Chen boldly ignored the young emperor and only addressed the innkeeper.

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