Mingzhe left Hikari in the garden, fully intending to take the front door on the way out. He'd been using the servant's entrance since before the trial to try and show Lady Yang that he was trying to protect them, but that desire was gone.
He was taking the front entrance, gossip be damned. Maybe a few days of him showing up to their house where everyone could see would generate enough bad gossip to actually stop them.
Or at least show them that they couldn't just dismiss it the way they kept telling him to.
"Good evening, my lord." The guard fell into step behind him as he made his way through the halls.
Mingzhe nodded absently, not eager to be friendly with anyone who served the Yangs.
The guard kept following him as he turned down another hallway and headed for the front door. Normally, they treated Mingzhe like another member of the Yang family and didn't speak unless he spoke to them.
Had Lady Yang told them to follow him?
Did she think he was growing discontent with the situation?
Or worse, did she know it was all just a lie to ingratiate himself and find a way to stop them?
Had she ever believed him? She was the master manipulator, at this point, Mingzhe didn't think he'd ever met someone better.
Or even heard of them.
Was this all part of her master plan? To trick Mingzhe into thinking he had the upper hand? Or that he was actually doing something? Was she just keeping him occupied, looking in one direction while she was working in another?
What else could she be doing? It felt like she was already doing everything possible, more than Mingzhe had ever considered. What was he missing?
"It's a bit late to walk by yourself, my lord."
The guard's words shook him out of the spiral of his thoughts. Mingzhe glanced over his shoulder, eyes narrowed, but the bland features didn't trigger any recognition. "That's not your concern."
"There's quite a crowd out front. Perhaps you'd prefer to use a different door."
"No." Mingzhe's tone left no room for argument, and he caught the guard's lip tic up into a smile from the corner of his eye. "Return to your duties."
The guard nodded, but he kept following Mingzhe.
"Leave." Mingzhe snapped, unable to stop himself.
"Lord Rong would be upset if I did." The guard murmured, voice so low no one but Mingzhe would have caught it. He nodded politely to another guard they passed, standing stationary outside what Mingzhe knew was the door to Lady Yang's wing…
Where the shield was mounted on the wall in plain view.
….
Lord Rong? One of Lady Yang's people wouldn't care about upsetting Lord Rong.
"Why would that upset him?" Mingzhe whispered, keeping his eyes forward.
"Because I found something he'd be interested in."
"And he'd know you by what name?"
"I scurry about in the dark and survive in the scraps people leave behind."
Rat. One of Yuze's most trusted. Even after what had happened with Fox and Snake.
The one who was trying to find Emmy and Patrick.
"Show me."
The hand that took his arm was firm, unyielding. Mingzhe didn't resist as it suddenly pulled him to the side. His body kept itself upright through instinct as Mingzhe's mind struggled to keep up with the sudden change in direction. Rat had moved so fast they'd disappeared from the hallway in between blinks. Rat pulled him around twice more, through rooms and hallways and down two sets of stairs Mingzhe didn't recognize, always a firm, guiding pressure.
He stopped them in front of a heavy door, three locks holding it shut.
Mingzhe looked around and realized they were alone.
The Yangs guarded every door.
"Where's the guard?"
Rat smiled. "Momentary inconvenience."
Mingzhe's first instinct was to hope the guard survived his momentary inconvenience, but then he remembered who they served, and he wasn't quite as concerned.
He watched Rat unlock all three locks and pull the door open.
"Won't someone notice?" Mingzhe asked as he stepped through.
Rat smirked. Soft footsteps sounded. Someone coming from the shadows. "It'll be fine."
He stepped in after Mingzhe and pushed the door shut.
Mingzhe heard all three locks click into place.
"Come on." Rat's deference mostly disappeared now that they were alone, but Mingzhe didn't care.
He followed the spy down the dimly lit hallway. "Have you been here the entire time?" Yuze had sent him out weeks before Lady Yang had started this entire thing.
"No." Rat didn't elaborate, and Mingzhe tried to remember anything Yuze had said about him. Aside from the fact that he trusted him and couldn't come up with anything.
Yuze was quiet when it came to his people, which made sense.
"I've been trying to get word to Lord Rong for a couple of weeks, but with everything happening…" Rat trailed off with a frown.
Mingzhe nodded in understanding. "It's been nearly impossible to exchange messages any way but face to face." Mingzhe couldn't even write Chenzhour or Eirian a personal message without the High Court reading it or the Yangs trying to intercept it. He'd been too afraid to even try a second time.
Rat led him to the end of the hallway. To another door with a heavy lock. He pulled lock-picking tools out of his boot. "It took a while to get through this lock."
Mingzhe eyed the other doors in the hallway. They were all locked as well. "So many locks."
"Most paranoid family I've seen so far," Rat muttered, and that was something.
How many manors had Rat broken into?
The lock came open with the sound of metal sliding against metal, and Rat pulled the lock off the door. He took hold of the door handle and paused. "Prepare yourself."
Mingzhe froze. He wanted to ask for what, but Rat was already shouldering the door open.
A rush of chilly air came with the open door and carried with it a waft of something…
Almost sweet, but too sweet. Rotten. And just under that, something truly wretched.
Waste and blood.
Death.
~ tbc