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lysapadinTitle: The Helpmeet
Characters/Pairings: Lan Xichen/Jin Guangyao, Jin Guangyao/Qin Su
Summary: Having verified the nature of the relationship between her husband and Zewu-jun, Qin Su takes the opportunity to clear up a few additional points.
Notes: Canon Divergence: Qin Su Already Knows. Smut, canonical half-sibling incest, generally amoral behavior, and ruthlessness.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Helpmeet
The thought came to Qin Su from a distance, as of a voice speaking from the bottom of a well: this settled the question Were they or were they not? in the most definitive fashion possible.
A second thought came to her as Zewu-jun lifted A-Yao's hips higher and slammed into him so hard that the bed groaned nearly as loudly as the two of them did: it was a very good thing that she had already dismissed her attendants for the evening. This was not a scene she would have cared to have any of them witness. There were already quite enough things whispered about Jin Guangyao without adding this into the mix.
They seemed not to have taken notice of her presence yet. From what she could see of A-Yao's face, cheek pressed against the bed as it was, he had his eyes squeezed shut as he chanted er-ge as though it were a sutra and his only hope of keeping some wickedness at bay. For his part, Zewu-jun seemed to be just as intent on A-Yao as he did something with the swivel of his hips to make her husband's voice break mid-moan. She could retreat now and leave them none the wiser for it, surely. It wouldn't be the first secret she'd held for her husband's sake.
It was a pity that she'd already given out that she was retiring for the evening. There was the antechamber of their rooms. She could withdraw that far to allow them their privacy while preparing herself to meet their eyes afterward as if she hadn't noticed anything amiss. Qin Su toyed with that idea for a moment, imagining their discomfiture upon finding her there and being forced to wonder how much she knew. How satisfying might that be?
Zewu-jun had pinned A-Yao's hands at the small of his back—his hand was large enough to wrap around both of A-Yao's wrists well enough to secure them in place. It was impressive, really, enough that she wondered how she'd never taken note of his hands before.
It was then that she concluded that she would neither walk away from what she had happened upon nor interrupt before matters ran their full course. Mind thus made up, Qin Su folded her hands together in her sleeves and gave her husband and his lover her fullest attention. Such an instructive scene deserved no less. She hadn't considered before how intimacies between two men might work, but now that she was bearing witness to such, she found it a rather compelling scene. There was nothing to complain of in A-Yao's lithe frame, but in conjunction with Zewu-jun's larger frame, packed as it was with solid muscle, he seemed positively delicate. It was no wonder they called Zewu-jun a jade; a person might be forgiven for thinking he'd already cultivated to immortality, seeing him like this.
The bed creaked loudly as Zewu-jun buried himself inside A-Yao again, and Qin Su couldn't help drawing the comparison. A-Yao had been so gentle with her, before. Reverent, even. His hands had trembled on her skin and when he'd murmured her name, he'd sounded awed. It would never have occurred to her that the man who had taken such care with her would take the same pleasure in being bent over and used the way Zewu-jun was using him. Or was it the same pleasure? If she were to judge purely by the sounds he made every time Zewu-jun sank home, her husband was enjoying these attentions quite a bit more than he had hers.
Qin Su set that thought aside. There would be time to make her peace with this new-found understanding of A-Yao's character later.
Zewu-jun's thrusts had begun to pick up speed, his voice taking on an edge of urgency to match the sounds tumbling from A-Yao's lips. She took that to mean that matters were approaching the point of crisis. Qin Su found that she had clasped her hands together tightly enough to make her knuckles ache. As she did, several things happened in rapid succession. Zewu-jun uttered a sound that was nearly a growl as he pulled A-Yao up onto his knees, revealing the creases that the bed linens had pressed into his cheek. A-Yao arched against him, lips parting on an ecstatic cry as Zewu-jun moved the hand gripping his hip to fold around the length of him instead.
And as Zewu-jun snapped his hips forward, A-Yao opened his eyes and locked gazes with Qin Su.
His eyes went wide with shock as he gasped her name. In the next moment he was tossing his head back, spending himself in Zewu-jun's hand.
He'd barely managed to voice the syllables of her name, but Zewu-jun was every bit as impressive as his reputation implied. Whatever else came of this evening, Qin Su was going to treasure the memory of Zewu-jun's shocked expression for years to come. She caught only a glimpse of it, there and gone again as pleasure swept across his face, apparently intense enough to make his eyes roll back in his head as he groaned.
Qin Su stepped away from the threshold, tasting the sweetness of satisfaction as she did. One did not often catch either of these men out, but she felt reasonably certain she'd managed the trick of it this time. She took a seat at the small side table and watched as A-Yao and Zewu-jun scrambled to recover their equanimity. Zewu-jun had gone crimson all the way down to his shoulders and was attempting to tug the bedclothes into providing the two of them with some semblance of modesty. A-Yao permitted this as he returned Qin Su's stare. Even undone and dazed as he was, he was swift to master himself and hide the calculations he was making behind one of his ever-present smiles. "A-Su." It came out as more of a croak than a proper greeting, and he paused to clear his throat. "You, ah. You're early this evening."
"Not that early," Qin Su murmured. "I think perhaps you and Zewu-jun lost track of the time while pursuing your night hunt."
Zewu-jun had the good grace to look sheepish at having the specious excuse they'd used for exiting the evening's entertainments early. "I do most humbly beg your pardon, Madam Jin."
"Do you really?" she asked, curious, and was amused by the ensuing fit of sputtering. "Ah. No, I didn't think so."
A-Yao continued to watch her, no doubt wary behind the blandness of his smile. "It is regrettable that you found us so unready to receive you, however."
Qin Su brushed that aside with a wave of her hand. "It's no matter. It had seemed that you had returned early yourself. I'd hoped to steal of few minutes of your time for myself. It was careless of me not to send word ahead, so the fault must surely be mine."
The corners of A-Yao's eyes creased a bit in appreciation of her sally, while Zewu-jun cleared his throat. "It would seem that I am intruding. With your permission, I'll depart first."
Perhaps it was petty to enjoy seeing the frustration swallow up A-Yao's amusement, but Qin Su couldn't find it in herself to regret it. "You are most gracious, Zewu-jun. I thank you for your willingness to forgo my husband's company for my sake."
Zewu-jun very nearly stuttered his way through a polite demurral, no doubt a reflexive response, and then stopped, clearly waiting for something.
A-Yao was the one to sigh and rise from the bed first. He paid no heed to his own nakedness and retrieved Zewu-jun's clothes before placing himself squarely in Qin Su's line of sight. She accepted that sop to Zewu-jun's dignity with a small smile and studied the pattern of bitemarks across A-Yao's shoulders instead. When Zewu-jun had managed to hide himself beneath the innermost layers of his robes, A-Yao finally consented to pull on one of his own robes before moving to assist Zewu-jun. He did so with the ease of long familiarity; once finished, he smoothed his hands over Zewu-jun's collars and drew him down for a kiss. He did not release Zewu-jun until he'd murmured something against the man's lips, too quiet for Qin Su to understand, but whatever he said caused Zewu-jun's blush to return in full force. He barely managed to offer her a bow before fleeing the room.
A-Yao watched him go, expression inscrutable, before turning his attention back to her. He sat himself on the edge of the bed, arranging himself almost primly, and smiled. "What is it that you wished to discuss, A-Su?"
She ignored the question and glanced towards the doorway. "He really is a very good man, isn't he?"
Her husband drew a breath that was clearly controlled. "The very best," he agreed. "That is why I would not care to see any harm come to him, if it were in my power to prevent it."
Qin Su met his eyes and smiled at him. "I would expect no less of you, A-Yao."
He narrowed his eyes. "Is that so."
"I see no reason to fear any harm coming to Zewu-jun." It was no doubt best to make that absolutely clear. "It's wonderful that your bond with him is so… intimate." His eyes stayed narrow as he made a clearly noncommittal noise, so she moved on from that topic. "Let's not linger on such unpleasant thoughts. I think that it's time we were fully honest with each other, don't you?" A-Yao's entire posture went still with sudden tension. Qin Su turned her sweetest smile on him. "After all, there should not be any secrets between husband and wife, should there?" She paused. "Or perhaps I should say between siblings instead."
Whether she had been meant to overhear the noises from his bedroom and investigate or not, this time she truly had surprised him. All the color drained from A-Yao's face, leaving his eyes dark and huge against the pallor of his skin as he choked. "You—A-Su, you know—?"
It was good that he had already seated himself, because she doubted that his legs would have been able to hold him just then. "Mother did try to warn me, once she realized that you weren't going to break the engagement." He trembled then, still as pale as old bone. "She took it very hard when I explained that I had figured it out already." There had been so many clues, from the hate in her mother's eyes and voice whenever she spoke of Jin Guangshan to the care she took in keeping any female servants well away from him during visits to Koi Tower to the whispered warnings Qin Su had overheard her delivering to her closest friends. It would have taken more work not to have realized the truth, even before her mother had taken the quondam Meng Yao in such dislike.
A-Yao choked again. "You already knew?" He shook his head, denying or disbelieving. "Before the wedding, though, surely, not before I—"
He stopped himself there, so Qin Su finished the sentence for him. "Not before you seduced me?"
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. "That. Yes."
Perhaps a very small lie could be allowed for the sake of A-Yao's peace of mind. "No, it wasn't until I saw how Mother reacted to discovering I was with child that I realized," she said, keeping her voice warm and soothing. "And of course, by then it was too late."
"And yet you went through with it anyway—you had to, the child—" A-Yao rubbed his hands over his face and turned a haunted gaze on her. "If I'd delayed, even for a month—your mother had taken ill—you wouldn't have had to—A-Su. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I needed your father's support, but I would never have touched you if I'd known, I'd have found some other way to persuade him—"
He was taking this very poorly indeed to have forgotten himself enough to speak so frankly. Qin Su sighed and moved to sit next to him, turned towards him. His hands were cold in hers when she grasped them. "Hush, A-Yao. You do not need to apologize to me. I made my choices freely." He tried to pull his hands free of hers, so she tightened her grip. "Listen to me. You were no more a brother to me when we first met than Jin Zixuan would have been. We were strangers when you saved my life, and you were only Sect Leader Jin's most capable, brilliant lieutenant when I fell in love with you. You remain my honored husband in my eyes, even now."
The color was beginning to return to his face as the first shock began to pass. "A-Su, I—" He wet his lips. "I only ever wanted to do what was right by you."
It was even the truth, by some measures. He hadn't laid a finger on her since her mother had made that desperate appeal to him, not even after their marriage, not even after the loss of her pregnancy, though she had certainly approached him many times since then. He hadn't explained himself, either, despite all the chances she'd given him to do so. Still, Qin Su supposed he'd tried to behave as honorably as he thought he could, and that counted for something.
She squeezed his hands, gentle. "I know you did, A-Yao. It must have been so difficult for you to bear that secret all by yourself."
Not even Jin Guangyao was shameless enough to meet her eyes after a statement like that. "I did what I had to," he whispered, staring down at their hands.
"I know you did, my darling. I have no regrets in my choice of husband." One additional lie, after all. She did regret the child, had swallowed bitter tears along with the tea that had brought about the end of her pregnancy, but she hadn't been able to justify the risk of carrying her pregnancy to term once they'd completed their three bows.
A-Yao's gaze jerked back to her at that. "A-Su, I—" He searched her face, clearly doubting her sincerity. He did not find anything to doubt, of course; Qin Su was not in the habit of allowing herself to show uncertainty unless she meant to do so. "Truly? Even—even now?"
"You are the husband I chose," Qin Su said. "I have given my heart and my loyalty to you and nothing will sway me from that decision."
He stared at her in silence for some time after that. Then he slumped, the tension draining out of him like water. "I need to think."
The truth again, she decided, and enough for one evening. "Of course," she said with all the kindness she could muster. "Take all the time that you need."
That earned her a sharp glance and then the faintest hint of a crooked smile. "Not too much time. I don't believe I want to let you get too far ahead of me."
"A-Yao, ah, my husband." Qin Su clicked her tongue and shook her head. "I wish only to stand at your side, not race ahead of you."
A-Yao looked at her, something wry flitting through the shadows in his eyes. "Of course," he murmured. "Of course, how could it be otherwise?"
"How indeed?" Qin Su rose and stooped to press a chaste kiss to his forehead. "I will leave you to your thoughts now. Please do convey my apologies for cutting your time together short to Zewu-jun when next you see him."
A-Yao twitched; she could almost believe he'd forgotten how this conversation had come about in the first place. "Certainly. Sleep well, A-Su."
She dipped her head to him and slipped out of the room. It had been a very productive evening, she decided. A-Yao had very quick wits. He would no doubt come to see the wisdom of their working in tandem in short order, and once he had—
Qin Su smiled, slow. Once A-Yao was willing to allow her to work at his side as a proper wife should, there would be no goal they could not accomplish together.
Characters/Pairings: Lan Xichen/Jin Guangyao, Jin Guangyao/Qin Su
Summary: Having verified the nature of the relationship between her husband and Zewu-jun, Qin Su takes the opportunity to clear up a few additional points.
Notes: Canon Divergence: Qin Su Already Knows. Smut, canonical half-sibling incest, generally amoral behavior, and ruthlessness.
The Helpmeet
The thought came to Qin Su from a distance, as of a voice speaking from the bottom of a well: this settled the question Were they or were they not? in the most definitive fashion possible.
A second thought came to her as Zewu-jun lifted A-Yao's hips higher and slammed into him so hard that the bed groaned nearly as loudly as the two of them did: it was a very good thing that she had already dismissed her attendants for the evening. This was not a scene she would have cared to have any of them witness. There were already quite enough things whispered about Jin Guangyao without adding this into the mix.
They seemed not to have taken notice of her presence yet. From what she could see of A-Yao's face, cheek pressed against the bed as it was, he had his eyes squeezed shut as he chanted er-ge as though it were a sutra and his only hope of keeping some wickedness at bay. For his part, Zewu-jun seemed to be just as intent on A-Yao as he did something with the swivel of his hips to make her husband's voice break mid-moan. She could retreat now and leave them none the wiser for it, surely. It wouldn't be the first secret she'd held for her husband's sake.
It was a pity that she'd already given out that she was retiring for the evening. There was the antechamber of their rooms. She could withdraw that far to allow them their privacy while preparing herself to meet their eyes afterward as if she hadn't noticed anything amiss. Qin Su toyed with that idea for a moment, imagining their discomfiture upon finding her there and being forced to wonder how much she knew. How satisfying might that be?
Zewu-jun had pinned A-Yao's hands at the small of his back—his hand was large enough to wrap around both of A-Yao's wrists well enough to secure them in place. It was impressive, really, enough that she wondered how she'd never taken note of his hands before.
It was then that she concluded that she would neither walk away from what she had happened upon nor interrupt before matters ran their full course. Mind thus made up, Qin Su folded her hands together in her sleeves and gave her husband and his lover her fullest attention. Such an instructive scene deserved no less. She hadn't considered before how intimacies between two men might work, but now that she was bearing witness to such, she found it a rather compelling scene. There was nothing to complain of in A-Yao's lithe frame, but in conjunction with Zewu-jun's larger frame, packed as it was with solid muscle, he seemed positively delicate. It was no wonder they called Zewu-jun a jade; a person might be forgiven for thinking he'd already cultivated to immortality, seeing him like this.
The bed creaked loudly as Zewu-jun buried himself inside A-Yao again, and Qin Su couldn't help drawing the comparison. A-Yao had been so gentle with her, before. Reverent, even. His hands had trembled on her skin and when he'd murmured her name, he'd sounded awed. It would never have occurred to her that the man who had taken such care with her would take the same pleasure in being bent over and used the way Zewu-jun was using him. Or was it the same pleasure? If she were to judge purely by the sounds he made every time Zewu-jun sank home, her husband was enjoying these attentions quite a bit more than he had hers.
Qin Su set that thought aside. There would be time to make her peace with this new-found understanding of A-Yao's character later.
Zewu-jun's thrusts had begun to pick up speed, his voice taking on an edge of urgency to match the sounds tumbling from A-Yao's lips. She took that to mean that matters were approaching the point of crisis. Qin Su found that she had clasped her hands together tightly enough to make her knuckles ache. As she did, several things happened in rapid succession. Zewu-jun uttered a sound that was nearly a growl as he pulled A-Yao up onto his knees, revealing the creases that the bed linens had pressed into his cheek. A-Yao arched against him, lips parting on an ecstatic cry as Zewu-jun moved the hand gripping his hip to fold around the length of him instead.
And as Zewu-jun snapped his hips forward, A-Yao opened his eyes and locked gazes with Qin Su.
His eyes went wide with shock as he gasped her name. In the next moment he was tossing his head back, spending himself in Zewu-jun's hand.
He'd barely managed to voice the syllables of her name, but Zewu-jun was every bit as impressive as his reputation implied. Whatever else came of this evening, Qin Su was going to treasure the memory of Zewu-jun's shocked expression for years to come. She caught only a glimpse of it, there and gone again as pleasure swept across his face, apparently intense enough to make his eyes roll back in his head as he groaned.
Qin Su stepped away from the threshold, tasting the sweetness of satisfaction as she did. One did not often catch either of these men out, but she felt reasonably certain she'd managed the trick of it this time. She took a seat at the small side table and watched as A-Yao and Zewu-jun scrambled to recover their equanimity. Zewu-jun had gone crimson all the way down to his shoulders and was attempting to tug the bedclothes into providing the two of them with some semblance of modesty. A-Yao permitted this as he returned Qin Su's stare. Even undone and dazed as he was, he was swift to master himself and hide the calculations he was making behind one of his ever-present smiles. "A-Su." It came out as more of a croak than a proper greeting, and he paused to clear his throat. "You, ah. You're early this evening."
"Not that early," Qin Su murmured. "I think perhaps you and Zewu-jun lost track of the time while pursuing your night hunt."
Zewu-jun had the good grace to look sheepish at having the specious excuse they'd used for exiting the evening's entertainments early. "I do most humbly beg your pardon, Madam Jin."
"Do you really?" she asked, curious, and was amused by the ensuing fit of sputtering. "Ah. No, I didn't think so."
A-Yao continued to watch her, no doubt wary behind the blandness of his smile. "It is regrettable that you found us so unready to receive you, however."
Qin Su brushed that aside with a wave of her hand. "It's no matter. It had seemed that you had returned early yourself. I'd hoped to steal of few minutes of your time for myself. It was careless of me not to send word ahead, so the fault must surely be mine."
The corners of A-Yao's eyes creased a bit in appreciation of her sally, while Zewu-jun cleared his throat. "It would seem that I am intruding. With your permission, I'll depart first."
Perhaps it was petty to enjoy seeing the frustration swallow up A-Yao's amusement, but Qin Su couldn't find it in herself to regret it. "You are most gracious, Zewu-jun. I thank you for your willingness to forgo my husband's company for my sake."
Zewu-jun very nearly stuttered his way through a polite demurral, no doubt a reflexive response, and then stopped, clearly waiting for something.
A-Yao was the one to sigh and rise from the bed first. He paid no heed to his own nakedness and retrieved Zewu-jun's clothes before placing himself squarely in Qin Su's line of sight. She accepted that sop to Zewu-jun's dignity with a small smile and studied the pattern of bitemarks across A-Yao's shoulders instead. When Zewu-jun had managed to hide himself beneath the innermost layers of his robes, A-Yao finally consented to pull on one of his own robes before moving to assist Zewu-jun. He did so with the ease of long familiarity; once finished, he smoothed his hands over Zewu-jun's collars and drew him down for a kiss. He did not release Zewu-jun until he'd murmured something against the man's lips, too quiet for Qin Su to understand, but whatever he said caused Zewu-jun's blush to return in full force. He barely managed to offer her a bow before fleeing the room.
A-Yao watched him go, expression inscrutable, before turning his attention back to her. He sat himself on the edge of the bed, arranging himself almost primly, and smiled. "What is it that you wished to discuss, A-Su?"
She ignored the question and glanced towards the doorway. "He really is a very good man, isn't he?"
Her husband drew a breath that was clearly controlled. "The very best," he agreed. "That is why I would not care to see any harm come to him, if it were in my power to prevent it."
Qin Su met his eyes and smiled at him. "I would expect no less of you, A-Yao."
He narrowed his eyes. "Is that so."
"I see no reason to fear any harm coming to Zewu-jun." It was no doubt best to make that absolutely clear. "It's wonderful that your bond with him is so… intimate." His eyes stayed narrow as he made a clearly noncommittal noise, so she moved on from that topic. "Let's not linger on such unpleasant thoughts. I think that it's time we were fully honest with each other, don't you?" A-Yao's entire posture went still with sudden tension. Qin Su turned her sweetest smile on him. "After all, there should not be any secrets between husband and wife, should there?" She paused. "Or perhaps I should say between siblings instead."
Whether she had been meant to overhear the noises from his bedroom and investigate or not, this time she truly had surprised him. All the color drained from A-Yao's face, leaving his eyes dark and huge against the pallor of his skin as he choked. "You—A-Su, you know—?"
It was good that he had already seated himself, because she doubted that his legs would have been able to hold him just then. "Mother did try to warn me, once she realized that you weren't going to break the engagement." He trembled then, still as pale as old bone. "She took it very hard when I explained that I had figured it out already." There had been so many clues, from the hate in her mother's eyes and voice whenever she spoke of Jin Guangshan to the care she took in keeping any female servants well away from him during visits to Koi Tower to the whispered warnings Qin Su had overheard her delivering to her closest friends. It would have taken more work not to have realized the truth, even before her mother had taken the quondam Meng Yao in such dislike.
A-Yao choked again. "You already knew?" He shook his head, denying or disbelieving. "Before the wedding, though, surely, not before I—"
He stopped himself there, so Qin Su finished the sentence for him. "Not before you seduced me?"
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. "That. Yes."
Perhaps a very small lie could be allowed for the sake of A-Yao's peace of mind. "No, it wasn't until I saw how Mother reacted to discovering I was with child that I realized," she said, keeping her voice warm and soothing. "And of course, by then it was too late."
"And yet you went through with it anyway—you had to, the child—" A-Yao rubbed his hands over his face and turned a haunted gaze on her. "If I'd delayed, even for a month—your mother had taken ill—you wouldn't have had to—A-Su. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I needed your father's support, but I would never have touched you if I'd known, I'd have found some other way to persuade him—"
He was taking this very poorly indeed to have forgotten himself enough to speak so frankly. Qin Su sighed and moved to sit next to him, turned towards him. His hands were cold in hers when she grasped them. "Hush, A-Yao. You do not need to apologize to me. I made my choices freely." He tried to pull his hands free of hers, so she tightened her grip. "Listen to me. You were no more a brother to me when we first met than Jin Zixuan would have been. We were strangers when you saved my life, and you were only Sect Leader Jin's most capable, brilliant lieutenant when I fell in love with you. You remain my honored husband in my eyes, even now."
The color was beginning to return to his face as the first shock began to pass. "A-Su, I—" He wet his lips. "I only ever wanted to do what was right by you."
It was even the truth, by some measures. He hadn't laid a finger on her since her mother had made that desperate appeal to him, not even after their marriage, not even after the loss of her pregnancy, though she had certainly approached him many times since then. He hadn't explained himself, either, despite all the chances she'd given him to do so. Still, Qin Su supposed he'd tried to behave as honorably as he thought he could, and that counted for something.
She squeezed his hands, gentle. "I know you did, A-Yao. It must have been so difficult for you to bear that secret all by yourself."
Not even Jin Guangyao was shameless enough to meet her eyes after a statement like that. "I did what I had to," he whispered, staring down at their hands.
"I know you did, my darling. I have no regrets in my choice of husband." One additional lie, after all. She did regret the child, had swallowed bitter tears along with the tea that had brought about the end of her pregnancy, but she hadn't been able to justify the risk of carrying her pregnancy to term once they'd completed their three bows.
A-Yao's gaze jerked back to her at that. "A-Su, I—" He searched her face, clearly doubting her sincerity. He did not find anything to doubt, of course; Qin Su was not in the habit of allowing herself to show uncertainty unless she meant to do so. "Truly? Even—even now?"
"You are the husband I chose," Qin Su said. "I have given my heart and my loyalty to you and nothing will sway me from that decision."
He stared at her in silence for some time after that. Then he slumped, the tension draining out of him like water. "I need to think."
The truth again, she decided, and enough for one evening. "Of course," she said with all the kindness she could muster. "Take all the time that you need."
That earned her a sharp glance and then the faintest hint of a crooked smile. "Not too much time. I don't believe I want to let you get too far ahead of me."
"A-Yao, ah, my husband." Qin Su clicked her tongue and shook her head. "I wish only to stand at your side, not race ahead of you."
A-Yao looked at her, something wry flitting through the shadows in his eyes. "Of course," he murmured. "Of course, how could it be otherwise?"
"How indeed?" Qin Su rose and stooped to press a chaste kiss to his forehead. "I will leave you to your thoughts now. Please do convey my apologies for cutting your time together short to Zewu-jun when next you see him."
A-Yao twitched; she could almost believe he'd forgotten how this conversation had come about in the first place. "Certainly. Sleep well, A-Su."
She dipped her head to him and slipped out of the room. It had been a very productive evening, she decided. A-Yao had very quick wits. He would no doubt come to see the wisdom of their working in tandem in short order, and once he had—
Qin Su smiled, slow. Once A-Yao was willing to allow her to work at his side as a proper wife should, there would be no goal they could not accomplish together.