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Both Xiao Zai and Chu Yun had trouble falling asleep after Chu Yun voiced his opinion that Ru Long could be Xiao Yao\'s son.

Xiao Zai in particular had a hard time wrapping his head around it. As far as he knew things in the Su court weren\'t that different from Zui. The King was married to a Queen, and had an harem of mostly female concubines, and a few males, that while unable to produce heirs, were still political pawns, or just pushed onto the king in ways he couldn\'t refuse, in the same way as many of the female concubines. 

With the exception of everyone being human, and a beta, there wasn\'t much difference in how the Su court operated, nor their rules of succession. So, it was impossible for Ru Long to be the Crown Prince if anyone knew he was a bastard. The King would never tolerate something like that.

Which raised several concerning questions.

Laying side by side in the bed, Xiao Zai asked one of them: "Either the King doesn\'t know he is a bastard, or...he is the King\'s child."

"Except...how can he be both the King and Xiao Yao\'s child at the same time?" Chu Yun asked, his tone halting. 

They both knew there was a way. The same mysterious way in which Chu Yun got pregnant. If it  was possible for an alpha to get pregnant from another alpha male, why couldn\'t it have worked for an alpha wolf, and a beta human male?

It made sense for Ru Long to want revenge against the man responsible for the death of one of his parents. But, even if he were the King\'s son, the circumstances around his birth would be murky to say the least. It was hard to say what the King of Su thought of the whole thing. Assuming they were right in their assumptions.

"He doesn\'t want us to inform the King of Su of his presence in Xin, and possibly, of his dealings with Chu Hean as well," Chu Yun said, worrying at his bottom lip. "But what did he mean by \'looking for a long lost relative\'? He couldn\'t have been talking about your uncle, everyone knows he\'s dead."

Xiao Zai was confused about that too. But it was too late to contemplate the implications any further.

He reached across the narrow cot and tucked a strand of Chu Yun\'s hair behind his ear. "We should sleep, it\'s getting late."

Chu Yun nodded, but Xiao Zai knew it would take him some time to actually relax enough for that. 

"I think they\'ll want us out of here first thing tomorrow morning," Chu Yun said, one corner of his lips quirking up. "And there\'s probably someone keeping guard outside this pavilion."

"Definetly." Xiao Zai smiled, looking out into the dark and imagining pairs of eyes looking at them from the shadows.

"I would never have thought that Chu Hean would have wanted something like this for himself," Chu Yun said, his voice tightly wound. "I used to call him \'little scholar\', because he was so introspective, and interested in his calligraphy, and his poems." His sharp eyebrows met above his dark eyes. "How does one go from that to a martial artist assassin?"

Xiao Zai didn\'t have an answer for him, and he knew that Chu Yun was probably blaming himself for how things had turned out.

"You can\'t anticipate everything," he said, pulling Chu Yun against his chest, and resting his chin on top of his head. "People are unpredictable, they don\'t always behave in ways you can clearly anticipate."

Chu Yun muffled an annoyed sound against his chest, and finally said. "Unlike you, you\'re very predictable."

Xiao Zai chuckled. "How so?"

"Loyal, like most dogs."

Xiao Zai let out a startled laugh and tried to slide his cold hands under Chu Yun\'s robes to make him yelp and squirm. "And you\'re a vixen, like all foxes."

In the end, Chu Yun got the best of him by wrapping his frozen feet against his calves, Xiao Zai just rolled on top of him and silenced his victorious laughter with a kiss.

---

Chu Yun woke up feeling sticky and cold at the same time. He wanted a proper bath, and a decent change of clothes, instead of putting on musty robes that had been on the bottom of a chest for who knows how long.

As expected, the morning started bright and early with Master Chen and a group of disciples knocking on their room\'s door and politely escorting them out of Harmonious Resonance Academy.

They were almost at the gates when Master Chen stopped them, "I know that his Grace and his Highness probably didn\'t have the most pleasant of experiences while in our company."

Chu Yun hummed noncommittally. If he was feeling generous Chu Yun would at least concede that the miserable experience of wading through a flooded tunnel wasn\'t the Academy\'s fault. But he wasn\'t sure if he was feeling generous.

"I would however, advise both of you not to divulge what you saw here." While the elderly Master\'s smile was pleasant, there was a hint of steel to his words. "We value our privacy."

He could see Xiao Zai\'s  spine growing taut with apprehension at his side, but Chu Yun had seen this coming, and was prepared for the possibility of being threatened. 

"Very well, but we\'ll want something in exchange for keeping the secret," he said, looking out into the sea of veiled faces.

"I don\'t know if his Grace is in a position to bargain," Master Chen said, the smile never leaving his thin lips.

"I think I am," Chu Yun retorted, just as pleasantly. "One day, I\'ll come here, directly, and request something of you, I will pay, just as any patron, but Harmonious Resonance will have to carry out my contract, no matter what I ask for." 

After a beat of silence, Master Chen nodded. "Those are the terms we extend to all our patrons."

"I will be able to name the disciples I want to carry out the contract." Chu Yun smirked. "I don\'t believe that\'s part of your terms."

Everything Chu Yun had learned about Harmonious Resonance led him to believe that contracts were either assigned at random, or that disciples could choose them themselves -- increasing the illusion that they had some freedom over the actions they took.

Master Chen\'s smile didn\'t falter but it was a close thing. "It\'s not...but his Highness will have his exception, we would prefer not to attract any undue attention."

"And you can\'t risk killing the Second Prince of Zui, his husband, and their maidservant in one fell swoop." Chu Yun looked out at the veiled disciples, only their eyes visible above the thin muslin veils covering the lower half of their faces. "That would attract too much attention. Who knows who we\'ve told about our destination?"

Finally, Master Chen\'s smile vanished entirely. "Indeed, so it is better for everyone if his Highness and his Grace go on their way." He raised his staff and two disciples opened the heavy wooden gates. "We\'ll keep our end of the bargain and trust that his Highness will do the same."

The three of them left the academy\'s grounds. The gates closed behind them with a loud and final thud.

---

After they had been on the road for some time, and Chu Yun was fairly certain no one was following them, he turned to Hua Nanyi and said:

"I hope you didn\'t stay in your room the whole night."

She rolled her eyes at him as if to saying, \'who do you think I am?\'

"It wasn\'t easy, they were patrolling everywhere," she said, with a hint of smugness. "But I did find some very interesting things."

"Like what?" Xiao Zai asked.

"Well, for instance, Chu Hean isn\'t at all popular," she said, tone conspiratorial. "I heard more than one person say that none of \'this\' would be happening if it wasn\'t for him." She paused. "By \'this\' they meant us."

"I gathered."

"Did you hear anything else?" Xiao Zai probed, looking away from the road and the horses, and towards Hua Nanyi riding alongside them.

"They referred to Chu Hean as \'the little Prince\', and had a lot of opinions about him bringing Ru Long with him to Harmonious Resonance." Her expression took on a complicated look. "It seems they resented that he got preferential treatment."

"Why does Chu Hean get special treatment, though?" Chu Yun asked, mostly voicing his inner thoughts. He didn\'t expect Hua Nanyi to have an answer for him, but it was still worth wondering about.

"Maybe he\'s the most successful out of all of the disciples?" Xiao Zai suggested, sending a cool shiver down Chu Yun\'s spine. 

That would meant that his younger brother was the most vicious among a group of vicious killers.

He was really glad he had worked out that bargain with Master Chen.. He might need to redeem it sooner rather than latter.