Li Yan huffed out something close to a laugh, quiet and short, and crossed the room toward the door, steadying himself with one hand against it before pulling it open.
Hu Biyan waited in the corridor, unreadable in the dim light, and turned to lead the way the moment the door swung open.
"Is Hu Bai joining us?" Li Yan glanced down the empty corridor, with some faint hope that the man might appear and cut this early hour short with his usual teasing.
"A possibility exists, though unlikely." Hu Biyan did not slow his pace. "My master rarely wakes during these hours, whatever intentions he claims otherwise. I have prepared what you will need for the written examination regardless. Practice questions, drawn from prior years, both mine and his."
Li Yan raised a brow at that. "Is that not cheating?"
"They are practice questions, nothing more." Hu Biyan’s tone remained perfectly even, unbothered by the accusation. "There is nothing wrong with making use of the resources available to you. The sect asks that candidates arrive prepared. It says nothing about how that preparation must be earned."
He led Li Yan into a small side room, sparse but well lit, a low table already set with parchment, ink, and a neat stack of scrolls. Hu Biyan gestured for him to sit before settling across from him, handing over a fresh sheet of parchment and a brush.
"Listen carefully." Hu Biyan folded his hands. "I will begin briefly with history. Take note of the key points as I speak."
Li Yan dipped the brush and waited.
"The current empress did not begin her life anywhere near the throne." Hu Biyan’s voice stayed level and measured, the cadence of someone who had recited it many times before. "She rose from a minor noble line, one barely worth mentioning in the histories before her ascension."
Li Yan wrote without much interest, brush moving in steady, practiced strokes.
"Once she took the throne, she built a household unlike any before her. Twelve children in total, five sons and seven daughters. Given the sheer number, tradition shifted early on to numbering the children by birth order rather than naming each individually, a custom the family maintains privately to this day."
The brush slowed.
"Within the palace," Hu Biyan continued, "hair length still marks ranks among the imperial children, a tradition dating back generations. The longer the hair, the higher the standing."
Li Yan’s hand went still entirely.
Twelve children, numbered rather than named. Hair grown long to mark rank, exactly as Hu Bai had explained it the night before, unbound and spilling well past his waist across the water. Every detail lined up too neatly to be coincidence.
Li Yan set the brush down slowly, the conclusion settling into place in his own mind, nothing spoken aloud, nothing given away on his face beyond a faint stillness Hu Biyan did not seem to notice.
Hu Bai was no idle young master playing at wealth. Hu Bai was a prince of that same household, third among the sons, hair grown long enough to prove it.
Marrying into the royal family carried complications enough without adding the matter of his own birth into the equation. Gers existed openly enough, tolerated in most corners of the empire, but sodomy remained far from accepted within circles as exalted as the throne itself. No empress would welcome a Ger into her family, whatever affection her son claimed to hold.
Had he known, truly known, what Hu Bai actually was, he never would have accepted a single word of that proposal, let alone signed his name to a contract binding them together on paper.
Li Yan stared down at the ring still resting on his finger, the metal suddenly heavier than it had felt only the night before, each glint of light off the dark stone now carrying weight it had not held until this moment.
"Well." Xiaoxiao’s voice drifted in, equal parts amused and entirely unhelpful. "This is certainly a tight spot you have landed yourself in, Master. What do you intend to do now?"
"For now, nothing. Hu Bai has not confirmed it himself. So I will act as though I know nothing. I still have three years to decide if I want to marry him or not."
Xiaoxiao did not say anything; three years, though, may not be a long time, but it is enough time to form attachments and attractions.
"You are still young; should you decide to marry the man, you will overcome that obstacle. Powerful people always get what they want."
Li Yan rubbed his forehead, focusing on the task before him.
"There is a lot of ill intent from those seeking the throne. The princesses are saved from it as they would get married, though the fifth princess is actively expressing her desire for the throne. But can she defeat her older brothers? The third prince has no interest in the throne, but, as the most gifted of the children, he bears the brunt of the hatred and has been targeted since childhood. The imperial palace is a dog-eat-dog world, where everyone must fend and fight for themselves; if you are not strong, you will be eaten."
Hu Biyan moved on to a different section of history, discussing the formation of the continent, the rise of sects, and their motives.
Li Yan had stopped listening entirely, lost in thought about Hu Bai. Was the Imperial Palace so dangerous that he was sent to live outside? Away from his brothers’ jealous eyes? Because they could never rest freely despite his freedom; he had no desire for the throne, but he could not be trusted because humans are capable of change....
He could not understand the need for the constant family competition or why each sibling felt the need to be better than the others.
The weaker ones were targeted and silenced; it was just as Xiaoxiao said: the strong always get what they want even if others have to pay the price.
Li Yan’s face curved into a frown; their greed and thirst for power sickened him.
"You must know, in this world only the gifted, only the strong, only the rich are treated with respect. The sect will pay you no heed if you are among the average."
Li Yan rested his face on his hand; he had no desire for public admiration; it was fake; these people would never care for him.
"I only wish to be loved."
Hu Biyan closed the book, placing it with a low sigh beside Li Yan.
"What a naive thing to say, as expected from a child."